Gal 4:16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
The Galatian Christians had received the gospel from Paul with great thanksgiving. They loved Paul for bringing the good news of Christ to them. But of course, as so typically happens – along come the creeps, creeping in, bringing their false gospel and heresies. And for what motive? Certainly not for the benefit of the Galatians. Nope. They used flattery and other deceptive means to get glory for themselves.
When Paul heard about it, he wrote this epistle. He confronted the false teachers sternly and really clobbered the foolish Galatians for falling for the lies. “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” And apparently some of them did not appreciate being told the truth, so Paul asks them this very searching question – “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
It is a very foolish thing to hate someone for telling you the truth. Especially when the truth they present to you is God’s truth and is meant to set you free from bondage to lies. Doesn’t Proverbs say something like: “Rebuke a fool and he will hate you.”? It really is the mark of a fool to hate someone who speaks truth. Apparently this world is pretty full of fools because all through the centuries those who tell the truth have been and are still being persecuted.
Let’s examine ourselves in this matter. None of us want to be an Ahab:
1Ki 22:8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”