Paul feels the change in how the Galatians see him. The same people who once welcomed him like an angel now treat him as an opponent, and the only thing that has changed is that he told them the truth about the gospel. His question is a hurt and searching one: is telling you the truth what made me your enemy?

Barnes notes how common this is: "How apt are we to feel that the man who tells us of our faults is our enemy!" Gill stresses that Paul himself had not changed: "he had the same cordial affection for them as ever." The question invites them to see that the problem is not Paul's love but their reaction to the truth.

No answer is recorded. Paul goes on to contrast himself with the false teachers: "They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them" (Galatians 4:17). He calls the Galatians "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19), and longs to be with them, "for I stand in doubt of you" (Galatians 4:20).

The "truth" Paul has told them is the gospel itself. Earlier he says he did not give in to false brethren even "for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you" (Galatians 2:5). Gill describes this truth as the gospel, which comes from "the God of truth" and concerns Christ. The Galatians were being influenced by others whom Paul describes as "some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:7). Barnes points to Proverbs 27:6: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."

Real love tells the truth. Paul's question exposes a pattern that appears throughout Scripture: those who flatter often seem like friends, and those who warn often seem like enemies. Barnes writes that "he shows me the purest friendship who is most faithful in warning me." Gill adds that "Telling the truth in such a manner often brings many enemies to the ministers of Christ."

Paul's love for the Galatians is clear in the verses around this question. He calls them his "little children" and speaks of laboring in birth for them (Galatians 4:19). He was willing to lose their affection rather than lose them to a false gospel. Matthew Henry draws the lesson: "Christians must not forbear speaking the truth, for fear of offending others."