New King James Version
Galatians 4:11
11I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
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 Living Translation (NLT)I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.
Context of Galatians 4:11
9But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. 12Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. 13You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.
Read all of Galatians 4Galatians 4:11 word by word
φοβοῦμαι ὑμᾶς μή πως εἰκῇ κεκοπίακα εἰς ὑμᾶς.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Galatians 4:11
- Galatians 4:20I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.
- 2 Corinthians 11:2For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 12:20For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults;
- Galatians 2:2And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.
- Galatians 5:2Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
- Isaiah 49:4Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work with my God.’ ”
- Acts 16:6Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
- 1 Corinthians 15:58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
- Philippians 2:16holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:5For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.
- 2 John 1:8Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
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
In the dictionaries
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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries