Galatians 4:11

Galatians 4:11 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
• New International Version (NIV)I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
• English Standard Version (ESV)I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
• New King James Version (NKJV)I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

Context of Galatians 4:11

9but now, knowing God, but rather being known by God, how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly principles to which ye desire to be again anew in bondage? 10Ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you. 12Be as I [am], for I also [am] as ye, brethren, I beseech you: ye have not at all wronged me. 13But ye know that in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first;

Galatians 4:11 word by word

φοβοῦμαι ὑμᾶς μή πως εἰκῇ κεκοπίακα εἰς ὑμᾶς.Read the interlinear

• afraidφοβέωphobeō · to fearG5399
• lestμήmē · notG3361
• vainεἰκῇeikē · in vainG1500

Cross-references for Galatians 4:11

• Galatians 4:20and I should wish to be present with you now, and change my voice, for I am perplexed as to you.
• 2 Corinthians 11:2For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy [which is] of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present [you] a chaste virgin to Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 12:20For I fear lest perhaps coming I find you not such as I wish, and that I be found by you such as ye do not wish: lest [there might be] strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings, puffings up, disturbances;
• Galatians 2:2and I went up according to revelation, and I laid before them the glad tidings which I preach among the nations, but privately to those conspicuous [among them], lest in any way I run or had run in vain;
• Galatians 5:2Behold, I, Paul, say to you, that if ye are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
• Isaiah 49:4— And I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; nevertheless my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God.
• Acts 16:6And having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia,
• 1 Corinthians 15:58So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in [the] Lord.
• Philippians 2:16holding forth [the] word of life, so as to be a boast for me in Christ's day, that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:5For this reason I also, no longer able to refrain myself, sent to know your faith, lest perhaps the tempter had tempted you and our labour should be come to nothing.
• 2 John 1:8See to yourselves, that we may not lose what we have wrought, but may receive full wages.

Commentaries on Galatians 4:11

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 11I am afraid of you - I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labor in your conversion have been thrown away.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 11I am afraid of you … - I have fears respecting you. His fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle. They had been so easily perverted and turned back to the servitude of ceremonies and rites, that he was apprehensive that there could be no real Christian principle in the case. What pastor has not often had such fears of his people, when he sees them turn to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, or when, after having “run well,” he sees…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 8-11Verses 8-11 The happy change whereby the Galatians were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was the effect of his free and rich grace; they were laid under the greater obligation to keep to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. All our knowledge of God begins on his part; we know him because we are known of him. Though our religion forbids idolatry, yet many practise spiritual idolatry in their…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 11I fear for you: The Galatians were in danger of turning away from Christ by depending on the law. If they did, Paul's efforts would have been wasted. The good news would not benefit them (compare Hebrews 6:4–6; 2 Peter 2:20–22). See Acts 13:44–14:24 for a description of Paul's work for the Christians in that region.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 8-118-11. Appeal to them not to turn back from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again. then--when ye were "servants" (Ga 4:7). ye knew not God--not opposed to Ro 1:21. The heathen originally knew God, as Ro 1:21 states, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew Him not, so far as His eternity, His…Read the comment

Topics related to Galatians 4:11

• Backsliders
• Instability
• Love
• Works
• Zeal, Religious

In the dictionaries

• Doubt
• Flesh
• Observe
• Zealously
• Galatians, Epistle to the

Commentaries on Galatians 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings