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, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. 12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. 13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

Galatians 4:11 word by word

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

• I am afraid ofφοβέωphobeō · to fearG5399
• youσύsu · youG4771
• lestμήπωςmēpōs mē pōs · so thatG3381
• I have bestowedκοπιάωkopiaō · to laborG2872
• uponεἰςeis · towardG1519
• in vainεἰκῇeikē · in vainG1500

Cross-references for Galatians 4:11

• Galatians 4:20I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
• 2 Corinthians 11:2For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused 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 would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
• Galatians 2:2And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
• Galatians 5:2Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
• Isaiah 49:4Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with Yhwh, and my work with my God.
• Acts 16:6Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
• 1 Corinthians 15:58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
• Philippians 2:16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:5For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
• 2 John 1:8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we 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

• 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