The Churches of Galatia.
Probably in the towns of Ancyra, Pessinus, and Tavium. It is interesting to mark that we have not in the New Testament a single name of a place or person, scarcely a single incident of any kind, connected with the apostle's preaching in Galatia. He had paid two visits to Galatia before this time.
I. THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE GALATIAN CHURCHES. The members belonged, as their name signifies, to the Celtic race, and differed in character and habits from all the other nations to whom Epistles were addressed. "It is the Celtic blood which gives a distinctive colour to the Galatian character." We hardly needed the authority of Caesar to know that instability of character was the chief difficulty in dealing with the Galatians, and that they were prone to all sorts of ritualistic observances. Thus they received the apostle with true Celtic heartiness at his first visit; they "received him as an angel of God, even as Christ." The Church was mainly Gentile, but gathered round a nucleus of Jewish converts. The fact that this Epistle was addressed to Churches over so extensive a tract of country would imply the wide prevalence of the Judaistic heresy. Yet the apostasy was as yet only in its incipient stage. It is a characteristic fact that false teachers never appear except in Churches already established. They seldom attempt the conversion of either Jew or Gentile, thus carefully avoiding persecution; but wherever they scent a work of grace from afar, they gather in eager haste to pervert the gospel of Christ.
II. THOUGH THE GALATIAN CHURCHES WERE IN ERROR, THEY WERE STILL TRUE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. They were not guilty of idolatry or of total apostasy, but they were stained by serious doctrinal corruptions and grave moral disorders. Yet the apostle owns them as true Churches of Christ. The lesson is a rebuke to the unchurching spirit so often manifest in Christian history.
III. THE APOSTLE'S ADDRESS TO THEM WAS CHARACTERISTIC. He addresses them simply as "Churches of Galatia," without one word of commendation or familiar greeting or kindly remembrance, such as we find in his addresses to other Churches. He does not address them as "faithful brethren," as "the saints in Christ Jesus." There is something suggestive in this method of prefacing the Epistle. He ends it with a perceptible softening of tone, his last word being "brethren."