Galatians 4 · Verse 11

Galatians 4:11

I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Galatians 4:11, King James Version

Galatians 4:11 in other translations

BSBI fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.
WEBI am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
ASVI am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
YLTI am afraid of you, lest in vain I did labour toward you.
DARBYI am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.
BBEI am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose.
WebsterI am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.

What does Galatians 4:11 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Galatians 4:8-11

8-11. Appeal to them not to turn back from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again. then--when ye were "servants" (Ga 4:7). ye knew not God--not opposed to Ro 1:21. The heathen originally knew God, as Ro 1:21 states, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew…

Read the full comment on Galatians 4:8-11 →

Barnes' Notes
Verse 11. I am afraid of you, etc. I have fears respecting you. His fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle. They had been so easily perverted and turned back to the servitude of ceremonies and rites, that he was apprehensive that there could be no real Christian principle in the case, What pastor has not often had such fears of his people when he sees them turn to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, or when, after having "run well," he sees them become the slaves of fashion, or of some habit inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel?

(&) "afraid of you" "I fear concerning you"

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 11 I am afraid of you - I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labor in your conversion have been thrown away.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Galatians 4:8-11

The happy change whereby the Galatians were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was the effect of his free and rich grace; they were laid under the greater obligation to keep to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. All our knowledge of God begins on his part; we know him because we are known of him. Though our religion forbids idolatry, yet many practise…

Read the full comment on Galatians 4:8-11 →

Galatians 4:11 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

φοβοῦμαιphoboumaiI fearG5399
ὑμᾶςhumasfor youG4771
μήmēlestG3361
πωςpōsperhapsG4458
εἰκῇeikēain vainG1500
κεκοπίακαkekopiakaI have toiledG2872
εἰςeisforG1519
ὑμᾶς.humasyou.G4771

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Galatians 4:11

  • 1 Thessalonians 3:5

    For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.

  • Philippians 2:16

    Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

  • 2 John 1:8

    Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

  • Galatians 2:2

    And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

  • Galatians 4:20

    I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

  • 1 Corinthians 15:58

    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

  • Acts 16:6

    Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

  • Galatians 5:2-4

    Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

  • 2 Corinthians 11:2-3

    For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:20-21

    For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

  • Isaiah 49:4

    Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
am.
20; 2Co 11:2,3; 12:20,21
lest.
2:2; 5:2-4; Isa 49:4; Ac 16:6; 1Co 15:58; Php 2:16; 1Th 3:5; 2Jo 1:8

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Galatians 4:10

    Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

  • Galatians 4:11

    I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

  • Galatians 4:12

    Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

Read all of Galatians 4

Galatians 4:11 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Temo de vosotros, que no haya trabajado en vano en vosotros.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Je crains, quant à vous, que peut-être je n’aie travaillé en vain pour vous.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ich fürchte um euch, ob ich nicht etwa vergeblich an euch gearbeitet habe.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Timeo vos, ne forte sine causa laboraverim in vobis.