Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 18:23

"And having spent some time [there], he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples." — Acts 18:23 (ASV)

Went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order.—It is clear from the Epistle to the Galatians that on this visit he found few traces, or none at all, of the work of the Judaisers. The change came afterwards. He may have already noticed some falling away from their first love, and some relapse into old national vices, which called for earnest warning (Galatians 5:21).

As he passed through the churches he had founded on his previous journey, he gave the directions for the weekly appropriation of what men could spare from their earnings (the term, a weekly “offertory,” though often applied to it, does not represent the facts of the case), to which he refers in 1 Corinthians 16:2.

We are unable to say what churches in Phrygia were visited. A possible construction of Colossians 2:1 might lead us to think of the churches in the valley of the Lycus—Colossæ, Hierapolis, and Laodicea—as having been founded by him, but the more probable interpretation of that passage is that he included them in the list of those who had not seen his face in the flesh.