Galatians 4:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Only now does he add the further ingredient of his happy memories based on the wonderful and heart-warming reception he enjoyed from them when he first came to them. This too is said to dissolve any suspicion in their minds about his affection for them. He could not remember his first visit with such joy and speak of it so openly, if he had now been turned against them by their recent foolishness. This appeal to affection is not manipulative, but a display of his genuine good will towards them. Suspicion and trust are opposites, and Paul labours to remove the weed of suspicion which can do such damage in the heart, and, while doing so, relates some interesting biographical detail.It was through illness, through some physical ailment in his body, that he had originally been led by God to come and preach to them in the first place. The implication is that he had intended to go an entirely different way, but that the illness that he was suffering from forced him to alter his plans. This is not recorded in the book of Acts but is an additional piece of information about what happened on that first missionary journey. Paul speaks of his sickness now because he is about to describe the response of the Galatians to that sickness, a response altogether different to their current hostility and suspicion.