17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
We see in these verses something of the costliness of a faithful ministry. It is very evident, from statements in many of Paul's epistles, that a peculiar bond exists between believers and their spiritual father, and we should not be surprised at the fierce concern expressed in these verses by the Apostle, at the thought that the spiritual wellbeing of his sons in the faith was being threatened. The words he uses of his concern are expressive of the agony involved in begetting spiritual children, and remind us of what is said of Christ Himself in Hebrews 2:10, 'It became Him...in bringing many sons into glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings'. This is a constant element in the work of the gospel. The service that costs little is worth little, and accomplishes little. It may not be possible to define exactly what stage of regeneration Paul refers to in the words 'until Christ be formed in you', but at least we may gather that he made no easy assumptions about those who professed to have received Christ, but rather laboured in prayer for them until he could see something of the lineaments of Christ appearing in them. This is something we can learn from the Apostle. Not every recorded 'decision' for Christ turns out to be a true conversion. How we need the parent-heart of Paul in our attitude to those we seek to influence for Christ!