Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 4:16

"So then am I become your enemy, by telling you the truth?" — Galatians 4:16 (ASV)

Am I therefore become your enemy, etc.? Is my telling you the truth regarding the tendency of the doctrines you have embraced, the character of those who have led you astray, and your own error, a proof that I have ceased to be your friend?

How apt we are to feel that the man who tells us of our faults is our enemy! How apt we are to treat him coldly, to cut his acquaintance, and to regard him with dislike!

The reason is, he gives us pain; and we cannot have pain inflicted on us, even by the stone against which we stumble, or by any animal, without momentary indignation, or regarding them for a time as our enemies.

Besides, we do not like to have another person acquainted with our faults and our follies, and we naturally avoid the society of those who are thus acquainted with us.

Such is human nature; and it requires no little grace for us to overcome this, and to regard the man who tells us of our faults, or the faults of our families, as our friend.

We love to be flattered, and to have our friends flattered; and we shrink with pain from any exposure, or any necessity for repentance.

Hence we become alienated from him who is faithful in reproving us for our faults. Hence men become offended with their ministers when they reprove them for their sins. Hence they become offended at the truth. Hence they resist the influences of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to bring the truth to the heart and to reprove men for their sins.

There is nothing more difficult than to regard, with steady and unwavering affection, the man who faithfully tells us the truth at all times, when that truth is painful.

Yet he is our best friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful (Proverbs 27:6).

If I am in danger of falling down a precipice, he shows me the purest friendship who tells me of it. If I am in danger of breathing the air of pestilence, and it can be avoided, he shows me pure kindness who tells me of it.

Even more so, if I am indulging in a course of conduct that may ruin me, or cherishing error that may endanger my salvation, he shows me the purest friendship who is most faithful in warning me and informing me of what must be the termination of my course.