Galaten 4:18

Staten Vertaling

Doch in het goede te allen tijd te ijveren is goed, en niet alleenlijk, als ik bij u tegenwoordig ben;

Parallel Translations

Gereviseerde Leidse Vertaling
Maar het is plicht voor een goede zaak te allen tijde te ijveren, en niet alleen wanneer ik bij u ben,

Gereviseerde Lutherse Vertaling
Het is goed altijd te ijveren in het goede, en niet alleen als ik bij u tegenwoordig ben,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

it is: Numbers 25:11-13, Psalms 69:9, Psalms 119:139, Isaiah 59:17, John 2:17, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Titus 2:14, Revelation 3:19

I am: Galatians 4:20, Philippians 1:27, Philippians 2:12

Reciprocal: Joshua 22:12 - the whole Lamentations 3:26 - good Acts 22:3 - was Romans 10:2 - that they

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But it is good to be zealously affected,.... A zealous affection when right is very commendable, as the instances of Phinehas, Elijah, John the Baptist, and our Lord Jesus Christ show, and a contrary spirit is very disagreeable. But then it must be expressed

in a good thing; in a good cause, for God, and the things of Christ; for the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, and for the discipline of God's house, and against immorality and profaneness, errors and heresies: and it should be "always"; not at certain times, and upon some particular accounts, but it should be constant, and always continue; it should be ever the same towards God, Christ, and his ministers:

and not only when I am present with you; by which the apostle suggests, that while he was with them they were zealously attached to him and truth; but no sooner was he gone from them, but their zealous affection abated, and was fixed on others, which discovered their weakness, fickleness, and inconstancy; whereas he was always the same to them, and bore the same love to them, as the following words show.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But it is good to be, zealously affected - The meaning of this is, “Understand me: I do not speak against zeal. I have not a word to say in its disparagement. In itself, it is good; and their zeal would be good if it were in a good cause.” Probably, they relied much on their zeal; perhaps they maintained, as errorists and deceivers are very apt to do, that zeal was sufficient evidence of the goodness of their cause, and that persons who are so very zealous could not possibly be bad men. How often is this plea set up by the friends of errorists and deceivers!

And not only when I am present with you - It seems to me that there is great adroitness and great delicacy of irony in this remark; and that the apostle intends to remind them as gently as possible, that it would have been as well for them to have shown their zeal in a good cause when he was absent, as well as when he was with them. The sense may be, “You were exceedingly zealous in a good cause when I was with you. You loved the truth; you loved me. Since I left you, and as soon almost as I was out of your sight, your zeal died away, and your ardent love for me was transferred to others. Allow me to remind you, that it would be well to be zealous of good when I am away, as well as when I am with you. There is not much true affection in that which dies away as soon as a man’s back is turned.” The doctrine is, that true zeal or love will live alike when the object is near and when it is removed; when our friends are present with us, and when they leave us; when their eye is upon us, and when it is turned away.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. It is good to be zealously affected — It is well to have a determined mind and an ardent heart in reference to things which are laudable and good.

Not only when I am present — You were thus attached to me when I was among you, but now ye have lost both your reverence and affection for me. Your false teachers pretended great concern for you, that you might put all your confidence in them; they have gained their end; they have estranged you from me, and got you to renounce the Gospel, and have brought you again into your former bondage.