The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 79

dated from the da.y of hie conversion on the road to Damascus. "The Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee" (Acts xxvi. 17). He speaks elsewhere of his having seen the Lord, as a token of his apostleship (1 Cor. ix. 1). He was directly and immediately called by Jesus Christ. (2) It was by" God the Faf,her,whoraisoohimfrom, the dead" -acting in and through Christ; the reference to the resurrection making it plain that Jesus could call him, though he bad not called him when he called the twelve, and that the apostleship was one of the gracious gifts conferred upon the Church by the ascended Redeemer (Eph. iv. 11). .Thus the apostle was not self-callerl to his high office, and does not even now refer to the source of his calling from vanity or self-assertion, but from a supreme regard to the welfare of bis converts. Ver. 2.-The apostle's companions in the gospel. "And all the brethren which are with me." It was aiter his manner to associate brethren with him in the inscriptions of his Epistles. I. WHO WERE THESE BRETHREN? 1. They Wet'e not the Christian people among whorn, he resided; for it was his habit to distinguish between "the brethren which are with me" and "the saints" (Phil. iv. 21, 22). Besides, in that case be would ratl::er have spoken of the brethren as the persons with whom he was. 2. They were his colleagues in gospel work and gospel travel, including probably Timothy and Titus, who had accompanied him in bis first visit to Galatia, and who had rejoined him there (Acts xviii. 5), and perhaps Erastus, Trophimus, and others. 3. They were very numerous. If the Epistle was written during the apostle's three months' visit to Corinth, toward the close of A.D. 57, he was now accompanied by a larger number of brethren than at almost any other time. II. WH:Y DOEB HE IDENTIFY THESE BRETHREN WITH HIMSELF IN THF. EPISTLE? 1. The concurrence of such brethren as Timothy and Silas, with whom the Galatians were personally acquainted, might have the effect of conciliating their affection and abating the bitterne~s of their opposition. 2. His emphatic reference to "all the brethren" seems to show that there was no sin,gularity in his views ; that he was supported by the best and the wisest of the Church's leaders, and that the Galatians, by repudiating Pauline teaching, were really severing themselves from the recognized guides of visible Christianity. Ver. 2.-The Churches of Galatia. Probably in the towns of Ancyra, Pessinus, and Tavium. It is interesting to mark t,Ji.at we have not in the New Testament a single name of a place or person, scarcely a single incident of any kind, connected with the apostle's preaching in Galatia. He had paid two visits to Galatia before this time. I. THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE GALATIAN CHURCHES. The members belonged, as their name signifies, to the Celtic race, and differed in character and habits from all the other nations to whom Epistles were addressed. "It is the Celtic blood which gives a distinctive colour to the Galatian character." We hardly needed the authority of Cresar to know that instability of character was the chief difficulty in dealing with the Galatians, and that they were prone to all sorts of ritualistic observances. Thus they received the apostle with true Celtic heartiness at his first visit; they "received him as an angel of God, even as Christ." The Church was mainly Gentile, but gathered round a nucleus of Jewish converts. The fact that this Epistle was addressed to Churches over so extensive a tract of country would imply the wide prevalence of the Judaistic heresy. Yet the apostasy was as yet only in its incipient stage. It is a characteristic fact that false teachers never appear except in Churches already established. They seldom attempt the conversion of either Jew or Gentile, thus carefully a,oiding perse- cution ; but wherever they scent a work of grace from afar, they gather in eager haste to pervert the gospel of Christ. II, THOUGH THE GALATIAN CHURCHES WERE IN ERROl?, THEY WERE STILL TRUE Cmrno1ms OF CHRIST, They were not guilty of idolatry or of total apostasy, but they were stained by serious doctrinal corruptions and grave moral disorders. Yet the apostle owns them as true Churches of Christ. 'rhe lesson is a rebuke to the unchurching spirit so often manifest in Christian history. III. THE APOSTLE'S ADDRESS TO TIIEM WAS CHARACTERISTIC. He addresses them Eimply as "Churches of Galatia," without one word of commendation or familiar  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [ OR, I, 1-24,