But it is good to be zealous always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
All Commentaries on Galatians 4:18 Go To Galatians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. It is good to imitate others, but only in what is good. [The Vulgate reading is in the imperative: Be zealously affected always to the good in what is good.]
Observe that the first good can be taken in the neuter, for what is good, or in the masculine. If the latter be read, then the meaning is: Do not be zealously affected towards Judaism, which is evil, but take as your models good Christian men like myself, whose manner of life among you ye know. You followed me when I was with you; you should do the same in my absence, for a good man is always to be imitated, whether absent or present. This is a hint that in the Apostle"s opinion it was his absence which had been the cause of their lapse into Judaism.
