Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 6:17

"Henceforth, let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus." — Galatians 6:17 (ASV)

Henceforth. For the remaining time; that is, during the remainder of my life.

Let no man trouble me. This implies that he had experienced trouble of some kind, and he earnestly desires that he may have no more. What particular trouble he refers to here is not certainly known, and commentators have not agreed. It seems to me that the connection requires us to understand it as the harassment he had experienced regarding his call to the apostolic office and his authority to explain and defend the religion of the Redeemer.

This had been one principal subject of this epistle. His authority had been called in question. He had felt it necessary to go into a vindication of it. His instructions had been departed from on the ground that he was not one of the original apostles and that he differed from others.

See Galatians 1:11. Hence all the anxiety and trouble he had experienced regarding their departure from the doctrines he had taught them. He closes the whole subject of the epistle with this tender and affecting language, the sense of which has been well expressed by Crellius: "I have shown my apostolic authority and proved that I am commissioned by the Lord Jesus. I have stated and vindicated the great doctrine of justification by faith and shown that the Mosaic law is not necessarily binding. On these points, let me have no more trouble. I have enough of other kinds for my nature to bear. I bear in my body the impressive proofs that I am an apostle, and the sufferings that require all my fortitude to sustain them. These marks, received in the service of the Lord Jesus, and so strongly resembling those which he himself received, prove that I am truly engaged in His cause and am commissioned by Him. These wounds and sorrows are so numerous that I need the kindness and prayers of Christians, rather than to be compelled to vindicate myself and rebuke them for their own wanderings."

For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. The word rendered here as "marks"—stigmata—properly means the marks or brands that are pricked or burned into the body. Thus, slaves were sometimes branded by their masters to prevent their escape, and devotees to an idol god sometimes had the name or image of the divinity they adored impressed on themselves.

Herodotus (ii.113) mentions a temple of Hercules in Egypt where, if any slave took refuge and had the sacred brands or marks (stigmata) impressed on him, he thereby devoted himself to the god, and it was unlawful for anyone to injure him. Many have supposed that Paul here says, in allusion to such a custom, that he had the name of the Redeemer impressed on his body and that he regarded himself as devoted to Him and His cause.

It seems to me that by these marks or brands, he refers to the welts he had received in his body—the marks of stripes and sufferings he endured in the service of the Redeemer. (Compare to 2 Corinthians 11:24–25). He had repeatedly been scourged. He bore the marks of that on his person now.

These were the evidence that he was devoted to the Saviour. He had received them in His cause, and they were the proofs that he belonged to the Lord Jesus. He had suffered for Him, and had suffered much. Having suffered in this way, and thus having the evidence that he belonged to the Saviour—evidence his sufferings amply provided to others—he asks to be freed from further harassment.

Some had in their body the marks of circumcision, the evidence that they were disciples of the law of Moses; others perhaps had in their persons the image and name of an idol to which they were devoted. But the marks he bore were the welts he had received by being repeatedly whipped publicly in the cause of the Redeemer.

To that Redeemer, therefore, he felt himself united, and from that attachment he would not allow himself to be diverted. How often has an old soldier shown his scars with pride and exultation as a proof of his attachment to his country! Numerous scars—the loss of an arm, an eye, or a leg—are thus the much-valued and vaunted pledges of attachment to liberty and a passport to the confidence of every man who loves his country.

"I prize this wound," said Lafayette, when struck in the foot by a musket-ball at Germantown, "as among the most valued of my honours." So Paul felt regarding the scourges he had received in the cause of the Lord Jesus. They were his boast and his glory, the pledge that he had been engaged in the cause of the Saviour, and a passport to all who loved the Son of God.

Christians now are not subjected to such stripes and scourgings. But let us have some marks of our attachment to the Lord Jesus. By a holy life, by self-denial, by subdued fleshly desires, by zeal in the cause of truth, by an imitation of the Lord Jesus, and by the marks of suffering in our body (if we should be called to it), let us have some evidence that we are His and be able to say, when we look on death and eternity, "we bear with us the evidence that we belong to the Son of God." To us, that will be of more value than any ribbon or star indicating elevated rank, more valuable than a ducal coronet, more valuable than the brightest jewel that ever sparkled on the brow of royalty.