Fickle Friends

"Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" 

It will be of great benefit to the reader of the book of Galatians to know the inhabitants of this city descended from the Gauls, a people of unstable nature. They were quick to receive impressions and just as quick to give them up; impulsiveness and fickleness characterized them. Thus, one can better understand our text. You might refer to them as "fair weather friends." Great when the sun is shinning, but nowhere to be found when clouds arise. 

But Paul was accustomed to this sort of wishy-washyness; the type who receives one with enthusiastic joy, only to reject him or her after being told the truth about themselves. The old warhorse was used to experiencing situations in which one minute he could scarcely keep people from worshiping him and in the next, they were ready to stone him. It is a real paradox, writes this seasoned saint, he told the Corinthian Christians, "And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." 

Evidently this sort of human being is not familiar with the wise man's teaching, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." They're difficult to figure out. They have a real dislike for the doctor who is instrumental in their healing. They fit comfortably with the crowd that cries one day, "Hosanna in the highest," and the very next, "Crucify Him." It can truly be said of them what is said of Samson and his friend "Whom he had used as a friend." Friends are not to be used, but rather cherished and held dear to our hearts.

If you have been let down by someone you trusted, remember "There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."