Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 4:8
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Danger of going back to the observance of the legal ceremonial. 8 11 8
The emphatic words in Gal 4:8-9 are ‘did service’, ‘to be in bondage’. The verb is the same in the original. The tense is different. ‘Before your conversion you were in slavery will you go back to a state of slavery? Then you served demons will you now submit to the bondage of weak and beggarly elements?’
knew not God ] Comp. 1Th 4:5 ‘The Gentiles, which know not God’. They might have known something of Him from the universe or from tradition or intuitively, but ‘they did not like to retain God in their knowledge’, Rom 1:28.
them which by nature are no gods ] The order of these words, so far as the position of the negative particle is concerned, is uncertain in the original. Adopting the A.V. we explain, ‘which by nature (in reality) are not gods, but demons’. If however the negative stand earlier in the sentence, the rendering will be, ‘which are not by nature, (not really, but only by repute) gods’. If the former be retained, comp. 1Co 10:20, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” If the latter order be adopted, we may compare 1Co 8:5, “there be that are called gods.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Howbeit – But, alla. The address in this verse and the following is evidently to the portion of the Galatians who had been pagan. This is probably indicated by the particle alla, but denoting a transition. In the previous verses Paul had evidently had the Jewish converts more particularly in his eye, and had described their former condition as one of servitude to the Mosaic rites and customs, and had shown the inconveniences of that condition, compared with the freedom imparted by the gospel. To complete the description, he refers also to the Gentiles, as a condition of worse servitude still, and shows Gal 4:9 the absurdity of their turning back to a state of bondage of any kind, after the glorious deliverance which they had obtained from the degrading servitude of pagan rites. The sense is, If the Jews were in such a state of servitude, how much more galling and severe was that of those who had been pagans. Yet fron that servitude the gospel had delivered them, and made them freemen. How absurd now to go back to a state of vassalage, and to become servants under the oppressive rites of the Jewish law!
When ye knew not God – In your state of paganism, when you had no knowledge of the true God and of his service. The object is not to apologize for what they did, because they did not know God; it is to state the fact that they were in a state of gross and galling servitude.
Ye did service – This does not express the force of the original. The meaning is, Ye were slaves to ( edouleusate); you were in a condition of servitude, as opposed to the freedom of the gospel; compare Gal 4:3, where the same word is used to describe the state of the Jews. The drift of the apostle is, to show that the Jews and Gentiles, before their conversion to Christianity, were in a state of vassalage or servitude, and that it was absurd in the highest degree to return to that condition again.
Unto them which by nature are no gods – Idols, or false gods. The expression by nature, phusei, according to Grotius, means, in fact, re ipsa. The sense is, that they really had no pretensions to divinity. Many of them were imaginary beings; many were the objects of creation, as the sun, and winds, and streams; and many were departed heroes that had been exalted to be objects of worship. Yet the servitude was real. It fettered their faculties; controlled their powers; bound their imagination, and commanded their time and property, and made them slaves. Idolatry is always slavery; and the servitude of sinners to their passions and appetites, to lust and gold, and ambition, is not less galling and severe than was the servitude to the pagan gods or the Jewish rites, or than is the servitude of the African now to a harsh and cruel master. Of all Christians it may be said that before their conversion they did service, or were slaves to harsh and cruel masters; and nothing but the gospel has made them free. It may be added, that the chains of idolatry all over the world are as fast riveted and as galling as they were in Galatia, and that nothing but the same gospel which Paul preached there can break those chains and restore man to freedom.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 4:8
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
The three estates of the Galatian Church
I. Before their conversion.
1. Ignorance of God. There is a twofold knowledge of God.
(1) Natural (Act 14:17; Rom 1:20), but this is
(a) imperfect,
(b) weak.
(2) Revealed: of the Father in Christ; neither of which did the Galatians possess.
2. Idolatry.
(1) False gods are set up in two ways,
(a) when that which is not God is worshipped as God,
(b) when men acknowledge the true God but do not conceive of Him as He will be conceived.
(2) There is a spiritual idolatry. What a man loves most is His god–wealth, pleasure, sin.
(3) That the sin of idolatry be rooted out there must be
(a) an illumination of the mind,
(b) a renovation of the heart.
II. In their conversion.
1. They knew God.
(1) The foundation of this knowledge: the revelation of God in Christ (Heb 1:2; 2Co 4:6).
(2) Its properties
(a) special: whereby we acknowledge Him to be our God in Christ through faith;
(b) distinct, not confused: His presence with us, providence over us, will concerning us; life is as
(c) effectual (1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 3:6).
2. God knew them.
1. This knowledge is the root of ours. We know Him because He first knew us.
2. The ground of all our hope and comfort (Isa 49:15).
III. In their apostasy, which was–
1. An intolerable sin.
2. A voluntary sin.
3. A senseless sin.
4. A common sin. (W. Perkins.)
Idolatry: its commonness
Many people have their own god; and he is much what the French mean when they talk of le bon Dieu,–very indulgent, rather weak, near at hand when we want anything, but far away out of sight when we have a mind to do wrong. Such-a god is as much an idol as if he were an image of wood or stone. (Archdeacon Hare.)
Idolatry: misrepresentation of God
It is, as it were, putting a mask on the face of God. Now if we do not make idols, still we may misrepresent God. We often speak as though God did not rejoice to see us enjoying ourselves. (T. T. Lynch.)
Idolatry: its power
Idolatry is one of the most unconquerable of all the corrupt propensities of the human soul. Miracles under the new dispensation had scarcely ceased, the apostolic fathers were scarcely cold in their graves, before idolatrous forms were superinduced upon the pure spirituality of the holy gospel. (J. B. Walker, M. A.)
Idolatry: its folly
How senseless it is! We should think that artist beside himself who would undertake to draw a likeness of something which he had never seen, nor ever could see; to paint a portrait of the air, the wind, the fragrance of flowers. And God is a Spirit. To what shall we liken Him? (D. Thomas, D.D)
The testimony of idolatry
It is a very important truth that the prevalence of idolatry is in itself a strong testimony for the existence of one supreme God. For we find idolatry in some form amongst all but the most degraded and debased of nations, such as are some of the African tribes, and it is not certain that its remnants are not traceable there. As Luther puts it: All idolatry in the world arises from this, that people by nature have had the common knowledge that there is a God, without which idolatry would remain unpractised. With this knowledge engrafted in mankind, they have (without Gods Word) fancied all manner of ungodly opinions about God. (Biblical Treasury.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. When ye knew not God] Though it is evident, from the complexion of the whole of this epistle, that the great body of the Christians in the Churches of Galatia were converts from among the Jews or proselytes to Judaism; yet from this verse it appears that there were some who had been converted from heathenism; unless we suppose that the apostle here particularly addresses those who had been proselytes to Judaism and thence converted to Christianity; which appears to be most likely from the following verses.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When ye knew not God, as he is, or as ye ought to have known him, or as, since, you have known him; for even the heathen have some knowledge of God, Rom 1:21.
Ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods; you paid religious homages unto idols; which are gods, not by nature and essence, but only in the opinion of idolaters. Which was a more miserable bondage and servitude than the Jews were under, who knew the true God; though in the time when the church was like the heir under age, it was subject to the law contained in ordinances, and under the yoke of the law.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8-11. Appeal to them not to turnback from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again.
thenwhen ye were”servants” (Ga 4:7).
ye knew not Godnotopposed to Ro 1:21. The heathenoriginally knew God, as Ro1:21 states, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge,and so corrupted the original truth. They might still haveknown Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact theyknew Him not, so far as His eternity, His power as the Creator, andHis holiness, are concerned.
are no godsthat is,have no existence, such as their worshippers attribute to them, inthe nature of things, but only in the corrupt imaginations of theirworshippers (see on 1Co 8:4; 1Co10:19, 20; 2Ch 13:9). Your”service” was a different bondage from that of the Jews,which was a true service. Yet theirs, like yours, was a burdensomeyoke; how then is it ye wish to resume the yoke after that God hastransferred both Jews and Gentiles to a free service?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Howbeit then, when ye know not God,…. Whilst in Gentilism, and in a state of unregeneracy, they had no true knowledge of God; though they might know by the light of nature, and works of creation, that there was a God, yet they did not know who he was, but called either mortal men, or some one or other of the creatures, or stocks, and stones, and images of men’s device, by this name; they knew not the God of Israel; they did not know God in Christ, and are therefore said to be without him; and a common description of them it is, that they knew not God: and whilst this was their case, what follows was true of them,
ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods; only by name, and in the opinion of men, but have no divinity in them, are only called gods, mere nominal, fictitious deities, who have nothing of the nature and essence of God in them; for there is but one God by nature and essence, the Father, Son, and Spirit; all others have only the name and appearance, but not the truth of deity; and these the Gentiles in their times of ignorance did “service” to, which is what the Jews call , “strange service”; that is, idolatry, concerning which there is a whole treatise in the Talmud, and which bears that name o. This service lay in paying homage to them, worshipping of them, and performing various rites and ceremonies in a way of adoration, and which they reckoned religious service; and which, comparatively speaking, whilst in this state of blindness, was excusable in them; though it is a wonderful instance of grace that such idolaters should be the sons of God.
o Aveda Zara.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Affectionate Remonstrance. | A. D. 56. |
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
In these verses the apostle puts them in mind of what they were before their conversion to the faith of Christ, and what a blessed change their conversion had made upon them; and thence endeavours to convince them of their great weakness in hearkening to those who would bring them under the bondage of the law of Moses.
I. He reminds them of their past state and behaviour, and what they were before the gospel was preached to them. Then they knew not God; they were grossly ignorant of the true God, and the way wherein he is to be worshipped: and at that time they were under the worst of slaveries, for they did service to those which by nature were no gods, they were employed in a great number of superstitious and idolatrous services to those who, though they were accounted gods, were yet really no gods, but mere creatures, and perhaps of their own making, and therefore were utterly unable to hear and help them. Note, 1. Those who are ignorant of the true God cannot but be inclined to false gods. Those who forsook the God who made the world, rather than be without gods, worshipped such as they themselves made. 2. Religious worship is due to none but to him who is by nature God; for, when the apostle blames the doing service to such as by nature were no gods, he plainly shows that he only who is by nature God is the proper object of our religious worship.
II. He calls upon them to consider the happy change that was made in them by the preaching of the gospel among them. Now they had known God (they were brought to the knowledge of the true God and of his Son Jesus Christ, whereby they were recovered out of the ignorance and bondage under which they before lay) or rather were known of God; this happy change in their state, whereby they were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was not owing to themselves, but to him; it was the effect of his free and rich grace towards them, and as such they ought to account it; and therefore hereby they were laid under the greater obligation to adhere to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. Note, All our acquaintance with God begins with him; we know him, because we are known of him.
III. Hence he infers the unreasonableness and madness of their suffering themselves to be brought again into a state of bondage. He speaks of it with surprise and deep concern of mind that such as they should do so: How turn you again, c., says he, <i>v. 9. “How is it that you, who have been taught to worship God in the gospel way, should not be persuaded to comply with the ceremonial way of worship? that you, who have been acquainted with a dispensation of light, liberty, and love, as that of the gospel is, should now submit to a dispensation of darkness, and bondage, and terror, as that of the law is?” This they had the less reason for, since they had never been under the law of Moses, as the Jews had been; and therefore on this account they were more inexcusable than the Jews themselves, who might be supposed to have some fondness for that which had been of such long standing among them. Besides, what they suffered themselves to be brought into bondage to were but weak and beggarly elements, such things as had no power in them to cleanse the soul, nor to afford any solid satisfaction to the mind, and which were only designed for that state of pupillage under which the church had been, but which had now come to a period; and therefore their weakness and folly were the more aggravated, in submitting to them, and in symbolizing with the Jews in observing their various festivals, here signified by days, and months, and times, and years. Here note, 1. It is possible for those who have made great professions of religion to be afterwards drawn into very great defections from the purity and simplicity of it, for this was the case of these Christians. And, 2. The more mercy God has shown to any, in bringing them into an acquaintance with the gospel, and the liberties and privileges of it, the greater are their sin and folly in suffering themselves to be deprived of them; for this the apostle lays a special stress upon, that after they had known God, or rather were known of him, they desired to be in bondage under the weak and beggarly elements of the law.
IV. Hereupon he expresses his fears concerning them, lest he had bestowed on them labour in vain. He had been at a great deal of pains about them, in preaching the gospel to them, and endeavouring to confirm them in the faith and liberty of it; but now they were giving up these, and thereby rendering his labour among them fruitless and ineffectual, and with the thoughts of this he could not but be deeply affected. Note, 1. A great deal of the labour of faithful ministers is labour in vain; and, when it is so, it cannot but be a great grief to those who desire the salvation of souls. Note, 2. The labour of ministers is in vain upon those who begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh, who, though they seem to set out well, yet afterwards turn aside from the way of the gospel. Note, 3. Those will have a great deal to answer for upon whom the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ bestow labour in vain.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
To them which by nature are not gods ( ). In 1Co 10:20 he terms them “demons,” the “so-called gods” (1Co 8:5), worshipping images made by hands (Ac 17:29).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Over against their filial freedom in Christ, Paul sets their lapse into subjection to the elements of the world (verse 3).
Knew not God. See on 2Th 1:8.
Ye did service [] . Better, were in bondage or were slaves. By nature [] . Not denying their existence (comp. 1Co 8:5) but their deity. Emphasis on by nature. Comp. 1Co 10:20.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
TO REVERT TO LEGALITY IS UNTHINKABLE V. 8-12
1) “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God,” (alla tote men ouk eidotes theon) “But then indeed (at that time) not (even) perceiving God,” who God was. While in slavery to heathen gods, they had not recognized who God was. They had once been in a state of ignorance, non-comprehension of God, Act 17:29-30.
2) “Ye did service,” (edouleusate) “You all served as slaves, bondservants,” spent about all you had of things and devotions, Rom 1:25; 1Co 7:4; 1Co 12:2; Eph 2:11-12.
3) “Unto them which by nature are no gods,” (tois phusei me ousin theois) “to the ones (living flesh creatures) not (even) existing as gods by nature”. To follow false gods, that are described by David as deaf, dumb, blind, lifeless, insensitive, is to live and walk in Spiritual darkness, deafness, and ignorance; but such is no more offensive to God than to turn from Jesus Christ to trust in forms and legal ceremonies of the law as a media of hope for salvation, 1Th 1:9; 1Co 10:19; Act 4:12; Act 13:38-39.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. But when ye as yet knew not God. This is not intended as an additional argument; and indeed he had already proved his point so fully, that no doubt remained, and the rebuke which was now to be administered could not be evaded. His object is to make their fall appear more criminal, by comparing it with past events. It is not wonderful, he says, that formerly ye did service to them which by nature are no gods; for, wherever ignorance of God exists, there must be dreadful blindness. You were then wandering in darkness, but how disgraceful is it that in the midst of light you should fall into such gross errors! The main inference is, that the Galatians were less excusable for corrupting the gospel than they had formerly been for idolatry. But here it ought to be observed, that, till we have been enlightened in the true knowledge of one God, we always serve idols, whatever pretext we may throw over the false religion. The lawful worship of God, therefore, must be preceded by just views of his character. By nature, that is, in reality, they are no gods. Every object of worship which men contrive is a creature of their own imagination. In the opinion of men idols may be gods, but in reality they are nothing.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Gal. 4:9. How turn ye again [anew]?Making a new beginning in religion, lapsing from Christianity just in as far as they embrace legalism. To the weak and beggarly elements.Weak is contrasted with power as to effects, and beggarly with affluence in respect of gifts. The disparaging expression is applied; not to the ritualistic externalism of heathen religions, but rather to that God-given system of ritualistic ordinances which had served the Church in her infancy. That which was appropriate food for a babe or sick man is feeble and poor for a grown man in full health.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gal. 4:8-11
Legalism a Relapse.
I. Legalism is no advance on heathenismWhen ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods (Gal. 4:8). Paganism was an elaborate system of formalism. The instinct of worship led men to sacrifice to imaginary deitiesgods which were no gods. Ignorant of the true God, they multiplied deities of their own. The Galatian pagans created a strange Pantheon. There were their old, weird Celtic deities before whom our British forefathers trembled. On this ancestral faith had been superimposed the frantic rites of the Phrygian mother Cebele, with her mutilated priests, and the more genial and humanistic cultus of the Greek Olympian gods. The oppressive rites of legalism were little better than the heathen ritual. Religion degenerated into a meaningless formality. Dickens describes how in Genoa he once witnessed a great festa on the hill behind the house, when the people alternately danced under tents in the open air and rushed to say a prayer or two in an adjoining church bright with red and gold and blue and silverso many minutes of dancing and of praying in regular turns of each.
II. Legalism, to converted heathen, is a disastrous relapse.After ye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements? Ye observe days and months and times and years (Gal. 4:9-10). The heathen in their blindness and ignorance might be excused, and ritualism, even to the Jews before the coming of the Messiah, might be well enough; but for Christians, who had received ampler knowledge and been illumined by the Holy Spirit, to return to the weak and beggarly elements, was irrational, monstrous! Having tasted the sweets of liberty, what folly to submit again to slavery! having reached spiritual manhood, how childish to degenerate! Legalism destroys the life of religion, and leaves only a mass of petrified forms. In his Stones of Venice, Ruskin says: There is no religion in any work of Titians; there is not even the smallest evidence of religious temper or sympathies either in himself or those for whom he painted. His larger sacred themes are merely for the exhibition of pictorial rhetoriccomposition and colour. His minor works are generally made subordinate to purposes of portraiture. The Madonna in the Frari church is a mere lay figure, introduced to form a link of connection between the portraits of various members of the Pesaro family who surround her. Bellini was brought up in faith; Titian in formalism. Between the years of their births the vital religion of Venice had expired.
III. A relapse to legalism is an occasion of alarm to the earnest Christian teacher.I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain (Gal. 4:11). The apostle knew something of the fickleness of the Galatians and of the weakness of human nature, but was hardly prepared for such a collapse of the work which he had built up with so much anxiety and care. He saw, more clearly than they, the peril of his converts, and the prospect of their further defection filled him with alarm and grief. It meant the loss of advantages gained, of precious blessings enjoyed, of peace, of character, of influence for good. It is a painful moment when the anxious Christian worker has to mourn over failure in any degree.
Lessons.
1. Legalism suppresses all religious growth.
2. Is a constant danger to the holiest.
3. Shows the necessity for earnest vigilance and prayer.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Gal. 4:8-11. The Dilemma of Turn-coats.
I. Their first condition was one of ignorance.
1. Ignorance of God.
(1) The light of nature is imperfect, because we know by it only some few and general things of God.
(2) It is weak, because it serves only to cut off excuse, and is not sufficient to direct us in the worship of God.
(3) It is a great and grievous sin.
2. Idolatry.
(1) When that which is not God is placed and worshipped in the room of the true God.
(2) When men acknowledge the true God, but do not conceive Him as He will be conceived, and as He has revealed Himself.
(3) What a man loves most, cares for most, and delights in most, that is his God. Where the heart is, there is thy God.
II. Their changed condition is the knowledge of God in Christ.
1. This is a special knowledge whereby we must acknowledge God to be our God in Christ.
2. This knowledge must be not confused, but distinct.
(1) We must acknowledge God in respect of His presence in all places.
(2) In respect of His particular providence over us.
(3) In respect of His will in all things to be done and suffered.
3. This knowledge must be an effectual and lively knowledge, working in us new affections, and inclinations.
III. Their revolt is an abandonment of salvation.It is an exchange of knowledge for ignorance, of the substance for the shadow, of reality for emptinessa return to weak and beggarly elements. It is the substitution of ceremonies for genuine worship.
IV. The conduct of turn-coats is an occasion of ministerial disappointment and alarm (Gal. 4:11).Work that is in vain in respect of men is not so before God.Perkins.
Gal. 4:8-9. Ignorance of God a Spiritual Bondage.
1. However natures light may serve to make known there is a God and that He ought to be served, it is nothing else but ignorance, as it leaves us destitute of the knowledge of God in Christ, without which there is no salvation.
2. Men are naturally inclined to feign some representation of the Godhead by things which incur in the outward senses, from which they easily advance to give divine worship unto those images and representations.
3. Though the Levitical ceremonies were once to be religiously observed as a part of divine worship leading to Christ, yet when the false teachers did urge them as a part of necessary commanded worship, or as a part of their righteousness before God, the apostle is bold to give them the name of weak and beggarly elements.
4. People may advance very far in the way of Christianity, and yet make a foul retreat afterwards in the course of defection and apostasy.Fergusson.
Gal. 4:9-10. Gods Sabbatic Law antedated the Mosaic Law.And whatever of legal bondage had been linked with the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was eliminated together with the change to the first day of the week. This at once removes the Lords Day from the category of days, and also of weak and beggarly elements. The mode of observance is learned from the Lords words, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, which at the same time imply, when rightly understood, the perpetual necessity for a Sabbath.Lange.
Gal. 4:11. Ministerial Anxiety
1. Prompts to earnest efforts in imparting the highest spiritual truths.
2. Looks for corresponding results in consistency of character and conduct.
3. Is grieved with the least indications of religious failure.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TEXT 4:811
(8) Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: (9) but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? (10) Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. (11) I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
PARAPHRASE 4:811
8 However, that ye Gentiles may not foolishly renounce your privileges as the sons of God, ye ought to remember what your condition was whilst under the elements of the world, and compare it with your present happy state: That then, indeed, not knowing God, ye served slavishly, beings who are not gods by their own nature, but by human appointment.
9 But now, under the gospel, having acknowledged the true God as your father, (Gal. 4:6) or rather, being acknowledged by him as sons, why, by embracing Judaism, turn ye back again to the unprofitable and low kind of worship formerly practiced by you in your heathenish state, and to which again, ever since your conversion, ye incline to be in bondage?
10 Why do ye carefully observe days, and moons, and seasons, and years? These holidays, though enjoined by Moses are equally ineffectual with the rites of the heathen religions, formerly practiced by you, for procuring the favour of God.
11 Ye are so fond of these weak and poor elements, that I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have preached in vain among you. For ye do not seem to understand the value of the privileges of the gospel.
COMMENT 4:8
Howbeit
1.
Means when.
2.
A time element is referred to and a condition during that time.
not knowing God
1.
This verse can be used to imply that the Galatian converts were formerly heathen, which is the preferable view.
2.
A second meaning may be found in the fact that the Jews did not know God, even though they worshipped the true God.
a.
It is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God; and ye have not known him; but I know him. Joh. 8:54-55
b.
And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor me. Joh. 16:3
ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods
1.
This definitely sounds as though they were heathen.
2.
What is the nature of God?
a.
A creator and not a creature.
b.
A personality, not lifeless material shaped by human hands, which the Galatians no doubt had worshipped.
WORD STUDY 4:8
Them that . . . are no gods gives the erroneous impression that the Galatians were worshipping idols or false spirits. Actually, the Greek gender could just as well be neuter, and would be referring to the rudiments of Gal. 4:3 and Gal. 4:9. The better translation in this context would be things which are by nature not gods.
COMMENT 4:9
now that ye have come to know God
1.
How do we know God?
a.
By His worksHandiwork. Psa. 19:1
b.
By His wordsPreaching. 1Co. 1:21
c.
By His workmanJesus revealed. Heb. 1:1-4
1)
The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Joh. 1:18
2)
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
2.
Paul also was a workman preaching. Joh. 14:9
a.
I planted, Apollos watered . . . 1Co. 3:6
b.
That I might not build on another mans foundation. Rom. 15:20
or rather to be known by God
1.
This probably means to be approved of God.
2.
God does know his own.
a.
Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, Mat. 6:8
b.
God, who knoweth the heart, Act. 15:8
c.
The Lord knoweth them that are his. 2Ti. 2:19
d.
The Lord knoweth how to deliver. 2Pe. 2:9
e.
Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous. Psa. 1:6
how turn ye back again
1.
Observe that they once were Christian and were approved of God.
a.
People can turn back and be lost.
1)
Ye are severed from Christ . . . ye are fallen away from grace. Gal. 5:4
2)
who hindered you . . . Gal. 5:7
3)
who did bewitch you . . . Gal. 3:1
4)
Quickly removing Gal. 1:6
b.
Many Scriptures in other places warn about turning back.
1)
Having put his hand to the plow, and looking back. Luk. 9:62
2)
Again entangled therein. 2Pe. 2:20-22
3)
Lest haply we drift away. Heb. 2:1
4)
Falling away. Heb. 3:12
5)
And then fell away, it is impossible to renew them. Heb. 6:6
2.
Some religionist formerly argued, If you get it, you cant lose it; if you lose it, you never had it. But these had it in Galatia.
to the weak and beggarly rudiments
1.
In what way were they weak?
a.
Weakineffectual rites and ceremonies of Moses.
b.
Weakcounteraction to sins.
c.
Beggarly elementtoo poor to purchase eternal salvation.
d.
The weakness of the law: What the law could not do. Rom. 8:3
2.
If these are referred to, then they must have been addicted to them at one time for he says Again.
a.
It could be they were heathen who were converted to Judaism, then converted to Christianity.
b.
He may be placing all efforts to be righteous by work under the same category whether it be heathen or Jewish.
rudiments
1.
Rudiments means unwrought, ignorant, rude, that which is undeveloped.
2.
They were rudiments because they belonged to a rudimentary condition.
a.
Observe the stages of mans relationship to God.
1)
Patriarchal Dispensation
Infancy age.
2)
Mosaic Dispensation
Childhood.
3)
Christian
Manhood.
b.
Observe a comparison of the law and the Gospel.
1)
Law
Gospel.
2)
Childhood
Manhood.
3)
Bondage
Freedom.
4)
Inheritance-temporal, now,
Inheritance.
Spiritual, future.
whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again
1.
This bondage is to Judaistic teachers.
2.
It does not necessarily mean, again to the same thing.
3.
They were in bondage in heathenism and were made free and again were going into bondage, this time to false teachers.
Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years
1.
This is proof of their childhood.
2.
The Catholic Bible footnotes this as Their feasts under the Jewish law.
COMMENT 4:10
Ye observe days
1.
It is not stated whether these were sabbaths and Jewish festivals or ritual days of paganismmaybe both.
a.
Col. 2:16 shows it is not a requirement of Christians.
2.
Catholics have their days.
a.
No meat on Fridaybut whiskey can be drunk.
b.
Observance is more important than ones life.
c.
Saints are worshipped.
d.
Festivals are conducted in the name of God.
and months
1.
Perhaps festivals such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, year of Jubilee, etc.
2.
Heathen people also have their seasons, believing that astronomical relationships have special significance for human life.
and seasons
1.
We hear folk talk about Lenton season.
a.
Is godliness seasonable?
b.
Is self-denial to be periodical?
2.
Security is not found in observances.
and years
1.
Annual atonements, sabbatical years and jubilees are referred to, says Johnson in his notes.
2.
Did not Paul observe them? Yes, he did.
a.
Hastening . . . to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. Act. 20:16
b.
But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. 1Co. 16:8
3.
Why did he?
a.
These were national days. A Jew would remember the passover, the giving of the law, etc., as naturally as we remember the Fourth of July.
b.
He did not insist upon them as religious rites for Gentiles.
4.
The Christian is to live minute by minute and not in relationship to man-made observances.
COMMENT 4:11
I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
1.
If they were savedhe did not labor in vainbut they had exchanged freedom for bondage, life for death.
a.
If once saved always saved be true, then Paul had not labored in vain.
b.
Evidently Paul did not teach Once in grace always in grace, but the exact opposite.
STUDY QUESTIONS 4:811
456.
Define the word howbeit.
457.
Judging by the expression not knowing God were the Galatians formerly heathen or Jehovah worshippers?
458.
Did the Jews know God even though they professed to worship Him?
459.
To whom were the Galatians in bondage?
460.
Does the last expression in the verse suggest strongly that they had been heathen?
461.
How did the Galatians come to know God?
462.
Do we know God by revelation only?
463.
Did God accept the Galatians, according to this verse?
464.
Does the scripture offer much assurance that God knows the Christians?
465.
Could you turn your back on God as Paul accuses the Galatians?
466.
How could they turn from God, who is strong, to weak and beggarly rudiments?
467.
List all the expressions in this book that teach the backsliding of the Galatians.
468.
Name the verses in the Bible that warn us concerning falling away.
469.
In what way were the rudiments weak?
470.
Explain how they may be considered beggarly?
471.
Were they again in bondage to the same thing?
472.
Is bondage to false truth equivalent to being in bondage to false teachers?
473.
Were they guilty of strange observances?
474.
Do we know if the observances were Jewish or pagan?
475.
Are religious festivals generally filled with inconsistencies?
476.
Was Paul inconsistent when he went to Jerusalem for their great days such as the Passover?
477.
Is it wrong for us to observe our national days?
478.
Would it be wrong in binding them upon others as essential for justification?
479.
What did Paul mean by his fear?
480.
Was his labor in vain, if they were saved in spite of their falling away?
481.
What was Pauls labor?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) Them which by nature are no gods.The gods of the heathen are called by St. Paul devils. (See 1Co. 10:20 : The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(8-11) The results of the foregoing argument are now turned against the Galatians. In their old heathen state they had been in bondage to gods that were no gods. From this bondage they had been delivered. They had been raised to a true knowledge of God, and received a Fathers recognition from Him. How then could they possibly think of returning to a system of mere ceremonialism. All this painful observance of times and seasons could only make the Apostle think that his labours on their behalf had been thrown away.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Ye knew not God Alluding to the fact that the main body of the Galatian Church had been pagans.
Did service You were not merely like the slave of Gal 4:1, but were actual slaves and worshippers of false tutors and governors, namely, them which are no gods.
By nature But only in the fancy of their worshippers.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature were no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how do you turn back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments to which you to be in bondage over again? You observe days, and months, and seasons and years.’
Paul now looks back to their state before they were converted. They had not known God. They had not heeded the voices that spoke through nature. They had not perceived His eternal power and Godhead (Rom 1:20). They had therefore put themselves in bondage to false gods, who were not really of the nature of God, gods made in the image of earthly things. They had allowed themselves to be subject to weak and beggarly ideas, bound up in corrupt religious requirements, in vain ceremonies and in false philosophies and ideas which had to be fulfilled to ‘attain salvation’. But then they had come to know God. They had been set free from such things! And yet now, without realising it, they were turning back to similar ideas as those they had held before, and from which they had been released. For the requirements of the Judaisers can be seen as no more sophisticated and genuine in their effect than their old ideas. Previously they had been in bondage to the elements of the world, now they were thinking of entering under the bondage of the Law. They were simply exchanging one bondage from another, while all the time God was offering them full freedom in Christ.
‘Now you have come to know God, or rather to be known of God.’ They had ‘come to know God’, but Paul does not want them to be proud of their new ‘knowledge of God’. Indeed they have shown that they know God very little because of what they have done. But he is confident that what is certainly true is that God has ‘known’ them (compare Gen 18:19). He has chosen them in His eternal purposes (Eph 1:4), and has, as it were, reached down and drawn them to Himself (Joh 6:44). How then can they return to something less personal and less powerful? Being ‘known by God’ they do not have to involve themselves in activities which involve a search for Him, or try to appease Him. They can walk into His inner sanctum and say ‘abba, Father’. They can know Him and walk with Him in the way and be His sons, and He will be their Father. Lesser things have therefore been done away.
‘How do you turn back to weak and beggarly rudiments.’ Here Paul equates their old ideas and their old religions with the Judaising tendencies. They were all but one and the same thing. Yet they even now they are foolishly attempting to reach God by ceremonial activity, by rites, by observances, all of which have previously proved in vain. How foolish men are. They simply behave like little children.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Is It Not then Foolish to Try to Turn Back to their Former State? ( Gal 4:8-11 ).
Granted then that we have received these great privileges from God, would it not be foolish to revert back to being a child under the control of tutors?
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Personal Admonition Paul then rebukes the Galatians for retracting from their liberties in Christ (Gal 4:8-11) and admonishes them to stand fast in these liberties and not return to the bondages of this world (Gal 4:12-20).
Gal 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:8
Gal 5:12, “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.”
At another one of their cities called Tavium a large, bronze statue of Zeus was the center of worship. Their city of Ancyra housed the magnificent temple of Augustus, built of white marble.
Comments (2) – Paul makes a similar reference to such idol-worship in his epistle to the Corinthians:
1Co 8:4, “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world , and that there is none other God but one.”
1Co 12:2, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols , even as ye were led.”
Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:10
Neh 10:33, “For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts , and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.”
Jesus has not commanded us to observe certain days, or months, as was done under the Mosaic Law. For us every day is the Sabbath day (Heb 4:9). We observe Sunday because we have chosen to do so. Jesus rose on the first day of the week, and this became the day of worship in the early church (Act 20:7).
Heb 4:9, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
Act 20:7, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”
Gal 4:15 “ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me” Comments – Many scholars suggest from Gal 4:15 that Paul had problems with his eyes. An argument used to support this view is the fact that Paul used an amanuensis to write at least one of his epistles (Rom 16:22). Philip Schaff tells us the oldest extant picture of Paul is found on “a large bronze medallion” unearthed in the cemetery of Domitilla, a member of the Flavian family, and dated back to the late first century or early second century. He says this artifact portrays Paul “with apparently diseased eyes, open mouth, bald head and short thick beard, but thoughtful, solemn, and dignified.” [101]
[101] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955), 295.
Rom 16:22, “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.”
However, Paul did write his salutations and other epistles:
1Co 16:21, “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.”
Gal 6:11, “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.”
Col 4:18, “The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.”
2Th 3:17, “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.”
Phm 1:19, “I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.”
Note that Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus.
Act 9:9, “And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.”
However, God healed him.
Act 9:18, “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.”
Note that Moses stuttered (Exo 4:19). God was able to use Moses in this weakness. Oral Roberts [102] and Benny Hinn [103] were born with a stuttering problem. When God anointed their lips, they were able to preach the Word of God clearly.
[102] Oral Roberts, A Daily Guide to Miracles and Successful Living Through SEED-FAITH (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Pinoak Publications, c1975, 1976), 29, 32, 76.
[103] Benny Hinn, Good Morning, Holy Spirit (Nashville: Tennessee, c1990, 1997), 44-5.
Exo 4:10, “And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
We see how Jacob wrestled with an angel and became Israel when the angel struck his thigh and caused him to limp the rest of his life (Gen 32:31).
Gen 32:31, “And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.”
In these experiences, Moses, Jacob and even Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn have learned to depend upon God. Benny Hinn says that around his house, he still sometimes has a problem stuttering. [104]
[104] Benny Hinn, This is Your Day (Irving, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
It may be possible that Paul, the apostle, had to deal with this problem occasionally, as he also learned to depend upon God.
Gal 4:17 “They zealously affected you” Word Study on “zealously affected” – BDAG says means to “court someone’s favor,” or “deeply concerned about.” (see 1b)
Comments Note the following modern English translations:
1. NASB “They eagerly seek you.”
2. Phillips “They are kin to win you over.”
Gal 4:17 “but not well” Comments – That is, not for good intents or purposes.
Gal 4:17 “they would exclude you” Comments – Note the following modern English translations:
1. BDAG – “To shut out, exclude in the sense of withdrawal of fellowship.”
2. Thayer “To shut (you) out from intercourse with me and with teachers cooperating with me.”
3. NIV “What they want is to alienate you from us.”
4. NLT “They are trying to shut you off from me.”
Gal 4:17 “that you might affect them” Comments – The NIV reads, “so that you may be zealous for them.”
Gal 4:17 Comments – These Judaizers of the Law were trying to separate believers from Paul and form their own group that would bring honor to themselves. Their motives were evil.
Illustration – I have seen this happen often while working in the mission fields of Africa. This happens when a corrupt pastor or group of ministers tries to bring in an international minister for the purpose of soliciting financial aid. These corrupt men will keep this visiting guest isolated from genuine Christian leaders in their community so that this guest will believe that these corrupt leaders are the pillars of the local church and yield to sponsoring them financially. These corrupt preachers want the guests to recognize them as great local leaders and exalt them with financial aid. Unfortunately, this method proves effective with some of these international guests.
Gal 4:18 Comments Paraphrasing Gal 4:18, we could say, “It is good when others are concerned about you with sincere motives, at all times, and not just when I’m with you.”
Gal 4:19 “My little children” Comments Paul calls the Galatians “little children” to describe the fact that he gave spiritual birth to them and is now bringing them up in the Lord. This phrase reflects their spiritual birth and growth through the labors of Paul.
Gal 4:19 “of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you” Comments – Paul travailed, as a mother giving birth, when he first brought the Galatians to Jesus for salvation. Now, he is in travail again in order to bring them to maturity. How? Not through worry, but through prayer. This is why God gave the woman the curse of pain in childbearing. It was spiritually symbolic of the fact that children are now born into this world in sin, and only through much painstaking labour and prayer by the parents can they be taught the truth to experience spiritual birth. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they would have given birth to righteous offspring.
The believers in Galatians, were born as babes in Christ (1Pe 2:2). Now they must grow. How does spiritual growth take place?
1Pe 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”
Note that Epaphras done the same for those saints at Colossi, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (Col 4:12-13). He must have been a powerful intercessor.
Col 4:12-13, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers , that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.”
Note how prayer is described as an effort that is exerted (Rom 15:30).
Rom 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me ;”
Gal 4:19 Comments – Gal 4:19 refers to travailing in the Spirit. Isa 66:8 is used by Kenneth Hagin to speak of prevailing in the spirit in prayer to bring lost souls to Jesus. He interprets this verse, to say that Paul was again interceding in the spirit for their souls. This deep travail brings about intense suffering in the inner man, like that of child birth. It is hard on the outer man (i.e., the flesh). [105]
[105] Kenneth Hagin, The Art of Intercession (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1980, 1984), 51-62.
Isa 66:8, “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
Gal 4:19 is not the only reference in the Scriptures to travailing in the Spirit. Joh 11:33-35 describes an occasion when Jesus was deeply troubled in His spirit and began to weep. We must be careful not to interpret this event in Jesus’ life as something that took place in His emotions; for it tells us that before Jesus wept, He “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled”. We must interpret is as a work and manifestation of the Holy Spirit stirring inside of Him and breaking forth through weeping. We call it travailing in the Spirit. I remember watching one of my mentors in the early 1980’s having this similar experience. After the church service, the pastor and several of us gathered around in a circle and began to pray. Within a few minutes, Jack Emerson began to tremble and groan, then fell to the floor and began to weep. We all waited while he regained his composure and strength and stood up. He later told some of us that this was not him weeping, but the moving of the Holy Spirit within him. When Jesus began to weep, the people around only saw it in the natural realm (Joh 11:36-37). However, it was this type travail and weeping in the Spirit that was necessary in order for this miracle to break forth and manifest as the resurrection of Lazarus.
We will read about another incident of Jesus in travail in the Garden of Gethsemane; for there Jesus said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” (Mat 26:38). This is a description of Jesus experiencing a heavy weight in His Spirit and being moved into prayer for a release of this weight. Dutch Sheets says that this event was a fulfillment of Isa 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul , and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” [106]
[106] Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer (Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1996), 129.
We also see a reference to this type of travail and weeping in Psa 126:6.
Psa 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
In his book God’s Armor Bearer: Book II, Terry Nance says that the Lord revealed to him the key to seeing the fulfillment of the call of God on his life. It is by intimacy, pregnancy, travail and birth. He explains that spiritual birth on this earth follows the same pattern as natural birth. As we become intimate with God, He plants within us a seed that we nurture and develop into His plan and purpose for our lives. As we labour and travail to follow this plan, we will see the manifestation of His plan for our lives. [107] Paul understood this principle, as he alludes to it in this verse. Paul refers to his labour and travail for the churches in other passages. Note:
[107] Terry Nance, God’s Armor Bearer: Book II (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, Inc., c1994), 19-21, 25.
1Th 2:9, “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.”
2Th 3:8, “Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Admonition to Stand Fast in their Liberties in Christ After explaining to the Galatians their liberties in Christ Paul admonishes them to walk in these liberties. He will give them an illustration of liberty and bondage from the story of Sarah and Hagar.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Personal Admonition to Liberty Gal 4:8-20
2. Biblical Illustration of Sarah & Hagar Gal 4:21-31
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The foolishness of backsliding from this truth:
v. 8. Howbeit, then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
v. 9. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
v. 10. Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
v. 11. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. The apostle here interrupts his doctrinal exposition to rebuke the Galatians for their strange conduct in turning back to a slavery of legal observance from which he had rescued them long ago: But at that time indeed, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to such as really are no gods. The Galatian Christians, Gentiles for the most part, had in the time before their conversion, before they had come to the knowledge of the true God, been in servitude to what they thought were gods, but which, as they now knew, were mere figments of their imagination. The thought implied in the apostle’s rebuke is: In the days of your ignorance there was some excuse for bondage to imaginary gods, to such as had no real existence. Now, however, the case is different: But now, having known God, having come to the knowledge of the true God by the grace of God in bringing them to such knowledge, how was it possible for them to turn back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, with the deliberate intention of serving them again, from the beginning, all over again? By being brought to the knowledge of God, by being converted, the Galatians had turned from their futile bondage, from their attempt to keep the Law, as they understood it, Rom 2:14-15. That was a work of God’s mercy alone; the knowledge of God which is by faith comes without a man’s merit and desire. Having been saved on the one hand, however, they were backsliding on the other; they were turning their attention and themselves to the rudiments of which Paul had spoken in v. 3, to the demands and statutes of the Law. Under the influence of the Judaizing teachers they were going so far as to believe that they could-merit something in the sight of God by observing the weak and beggarly statutes of the ceremonial law. Weak they were, because the Law cannot work righteousness and cannot even assist in obtaining it; and beggarly, empty, poor they were, because, instead of bringing true spiritual riches, they continually render a person poorer in true worth. The Galatians were thus beginning their heathenish life, with its futile efforts of appeasing a righteous and holy God, all over again. For in listening to the admonitions of the false teachers, “they were not only given to the celebration, but, precisely like the Jews, were already scrupulous also as to the correct reckoning of time for their holydays. Days, with reference to the Sabbath; months, probably with reference to the new moons; seasons, within the year, with reference to the feasts; years, with reference to the Sabbatical year.”
This situation filled the apostle with consternation and sorrow, for he cries out: I fear concerning you, lest I have done all my hard work for you in vain. Disappointment, bitterness, loving appeal: they all are expressed in these words. As Luther says: “These words breathe the tears of Paul. ” It is not only their sin, their ingratitude, to which he has reference, but also the great danger in which they had placed themselves. And all the hard, assiduous labor of the apostle was coming to naught.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Gal 4:8. Ye did service unto them, &c. Ye were in bondage unto those which, &c. See on Gal 4:1. It is evident here, that though these Christians had, before their conversion, been idolatrous Gentiles, the Judaizing teachers were desirous of subjecting them to the yoke of the Mosaic ceremonies.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gal 4:8 . ] Nevertheless , how fearfully at variance is your present retrograde attitude with the fact of this divine deliverance from your previous lost condition! This topic is dealt with down to Gal 4:11 . Observe that introduces the two corresponding relations and in conjunction . [187]
] then; reminds the readers of the past time, in which they were still (Gal 4:7 ).
] Cause of the which follows. In the non-knowledge of God (for . forms one idea) lies the fundamental essence of the heathenism , to which the apostle’s readers had mostly belonged. Comp. 1Th 4:5 ; Act 17:23 ; Act 17:30 , et al . As to the relation of the thought to Rom 1:20 f., see on that passage.
] The aorist simply designates the state of bondage then existing as now at an end, without looking at its duration or development. See Khner, II. p. 73 f.
] to the gods, who by nature however are not so! For, in the apostle’s view, the realities which were worshipped by the heathen as gods, were not gods, but demons. See on 1Co 10:20 . In his view, therefore, their nature was not divine, but at the same time not of mere mundane matter (Ewald) (comp. Wis 13:1 ff.); it was demoniac , a point which must have been well known to the Galatians from his oral instruction.
The negation denies subjectively , from the apostle’s view. Comp. 2Ch 13:9 : .
[187] But so, that the thought introduced by (ver. 9) is the main thought. Comp. Baeumlein, Partikell . p. 168.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
C. Rebuke, passing over into Sorrowful Complaint
Gal 4:8-18
1. Interrupting the doctrinal exposition, Paul rebukes the incomprehensible backsliding into which they are falling.
(Gal 4:8-11)
8Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service [were in bondage]10 unto them which by nature are no [not] gods.11 9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known [have been known]12 of God, how turn ye again [how is it that ye are turning again]13 to the weak and beggarly elements [rudiments], whereunto 10ye desire again [again anew] to be in bondage? Ye observe [carefully] days, and months, and times [seasons],14 and years. 11I am afraid of [respecting] you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
2. In language agitated by sorrow, he complains of the equally ungrounded estrangement, they had suffered to grow up between him and them through the selfish intrigues of the false teachers
(Gal 4:12-18.)
12Brethren, I beseech you, be [become]5as I am; for I am [also have become] as 13ye are: [.] ye have not injured me at all [ye injured me in nothing]: [yea] Ye know how through [that on account of]15infirmity of the flesh I preached the 14gospel unto you at the first [the first time]. And my [your]16temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; [,] but received me as an angel of God,even as Christ Jesus. 15Where is then [or What then was]17 the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own [omit own]18 eyes, and have given them to me. 16Am I therefore [So then, am I] become your enemy, because I tell you the truth [or by speaking to you the truth]? 17They zealously affect you, but not well [They pay you court in no good way];19 yea, they would exclude [desire to exclude] you,20 that ye might affect 18them [may pay them court]. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing [to be courted in a good way at all times], and not only when21 I am present with you.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Gal 4:8. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God.This sounds as if it continued the doctrinal development, but it takes a practical turn in the very next verse. Now no longer a servant, Paul had said,but, he now continues, reverting to the former time, then were ye servantswhen ye did not know God. Yet this is doubtless not merely a note of time, but a statement of the ground of the then existing bondage=as certainly as ye are now no longer servants, just so certainly was there a valid ground for your being formerly servants, when ye knew not God, namely, servants of idols. But comprehensible on this account as your earlier bondage was, equally incomprehensible is your present surrendering of yourselves into bondage again. For the not knowing God has ceased, hence with the cause, the effect also; they are, as already said, no longer , and therefore a in their case has no longer any justification whatever; their new bondage to the law is now as much without warrant as was their former bondage to idols.Ye were in bondage to them which by nature are not gods.This indicates more precisely the kind of bondage, in which the readers, as being Gentiles, formerly found themselves. From the fact that he so distinctly states of what kind their bondage was, it appears to be beyond doubt that he could not place them, as respected their pre-Christian state, in one category with the Jewish Christians as respected the pre-Christian state of these (Gal 4:3), nor comprehend them together under those in bondage under the rudiments of the world. Their bondage was, it is true, also bondage, but nevertheless an essentially different, more wretched one: they were not kept in bondage sc. by God Himself for a while, from pedagogic reasons, under a law, but it was a bondage resulting from their not knowing God, and being servants, moreover, = to those gods, which yet are in their real nature not gods, but are only so called; they are in fact according to Pauls teaching elsewhere, demons. [Undoubtedly there is a bondage here referred to somewhat different from that of Gal 4:3, but the distinction seems to be, that in addition to the pedagogic bondage, in which all were held, these Galatians, or heathen, were in even a worse condition. The sense of the two readings must be noticed; that of Rec., joins the negative with ; not gods in reality, only thought to be so; but the better sustained order, joins the negative with , asserting that they were not gods at all, did not exist; whether 1Co 10:20 justifies us in supposing that the implied antithesis is demons, is very doubtful. Meyer and Ellicott remark that this is a subjective negation.R.]
Gal 4:9. Rather have been known of God.A corrective climax, in order to give the following how still more emphasis. This knowing on the part of God is of course not used of a theoretical knowingfor in that sense every one is an object of Divine knowledgebut of an affectionate, loving, interested knowledge; comp. 1Co 8:3; 1Co 13:12, and in the Hebrew as frequently used. The aorist points to an act of God in the past, which was the act of adoption. Wieseler.How is it that ye are turning again? does not belong to the rudiments but to turn therefore not as if they had already before served the but only affirms that a second, new turning [Umwandlung] was asking place with them first from idols to God, now from God to the rudiments of the world=how turn you againnamely, to the ?In , moreover, there is not of necessity implied the idea of turning back, but simply that of turning away; although in the expression: Conversion from idols to God the thought of an original apostasy from God lies at the foundation, yet it lay being rather in the background; and as has in itself an entirely general signification, it could very well be applied, even in a case where there was no reference to a turning back; indeed there was scarcely another word to express this turning away, this striking into a particular course. [Schmoller, having adopted Wieselers view of Gal 4:3, is of course, consistent in following out that interpretation here, but it is very evident that this interpretation is difficult to defend. Here, and especially in the final clause of the verse, there must be a departure from the more obvious meanining of the words, to admit the idea that they had not relapsed as well as lapsed by their apostasy, does not necessarily imply a turning back to the same things but to similar things, not retro but iterum, i.e., not again to heathenism indeed, but to Judaism, both of which are included in the rudiments of the world. So Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot and others. The present tense () is used, for the change was Still going on. Comp. Gal 1:6 (Lightfoot).R.]The rudiments are called weak, because they have not the power to atone for sinful man, and by communication of the Spirit to transform him inwardly, agreeably to what Paul says of the law, e.g. Gal 3:21; Rom 8:3; comp. also Heb 7:18. They are called beggarly on account of their relatively imperfect matter in comparison with the perfection and the riches of the gospel. Wieseler.Whereunto ye desire again anew to be in bondage.Again belongs to serve, not as if they had already once served the rudiments but they have already served, they have been ; and now they wish to be so again, although servants of another lord, and thus they wish to begin the again , from the beginning, after it has scarcely as yet come to an end. [Ellicotts statement is preferable: They had been slaves to the rudiments in the form of heathenism; now they were desiring to enslave themselves again to the rudiments, and to commence them anew in the form of Judaism.R.]
Gal 4:10. Ye carefully observe.Proof of the declaration first made: Ye desire to be in bondage. [The punctuation is a matter of dispute. An interrogation mark is placed at the close of the verse by Tischendorf, Lightfoot, and others, but Ellicott, Wieseler, and more lately Meyer and Alford (both of whom formerly made the verse interrogative) adopt a simple period. This suits the transition to Gal 4:11 much better.R.] : to observe carefully, not to celebrate, or else the objects would have been , , . The Apostle means to say, that they were not only given to the celebration, but, precisely like the Jews, were already scrupulous also as to the correct reckoning of time for their holy days. Days, with reference to the Sabbath; months, probably with reference to the new moons, not, because certain months, the seventh especially, were regarded as peculiarly holy months; seasons, within the year, with reference to the feasts; years with reference to the Sabbatical year, not the year of jubilee, which was no longer celebrated. Wieseler.This passage shows how far and how far not, the Galatians had as yet been led astray. [Comp. Col 2:16. Alford is scarcely warranted in saying that this verse is at variance with any and every theory of the Christian Sabbath, since the reference is evidently to Jewish observances, Jewish days, etc. Wieseler supposes that they were then celebrating a Sabbatical year, because the present tense is used, but this is pressing it too far.R.]
Gal 4:11. I am afraid respecting you.Not superfluously has Paul added the , but in the consciousness that it is not his own interest (as for instance his having labored fruitlessly, in itself regarded), but the readers that his anxiety respects. Meyer.Luther aptly says: Lacrimas Pauli hc verba spirant [These words breathe the tears of Paul].
Gal 4:12. Become as I.The Apostles reprehension of their conduct naturally prepares the way for the admonition to a change of this. Yet he does little more than briefly indicate the exhortation, without continuing it, but goes on rather to make mention, with painful emotion, of his personal relation to the readers, as it had been and as it had now become.The sense of the briefly expressed admonition is not quite evident: but probably=become like me in freedom from Judaistic observance; the motive to this is then added: For I also have become as ye are, like you Gentiles, through my , comp. Gal 2:14, and moreover the Apostle means, doubtless: when I brought you the gospel.[Schmoller joins Brethren, I beseech you, with what follows, but the punctuation of the E. V. is better. The meaning of the first clause seems plain. In regard to the second, two interpretations deserve to be considered: 1. For I was once in bondage as ye now are. I once was a Jew, as ye now Judaize. 2. For I abandoned my legal ground of righteousness, I became a Gentile like you. The latter sense is simpler grammatically, as it understands the same verb which occurs in the former clause, because, not was. It is also more in character with the intense personal feeling which pervades the passage. I gave up all those time-honored customs, all those dear associations of race, to become like you. I have lived as a Gentile that I might preach to you Gentiles. Will you then abandon me, when I have abandoned all for you? This sense is well adapted both to the tender appeal Brethren, I beseech you, and to the eager explanation which follows: Ye did me no wrong (Lightfoot).Ye injured me in nothing.The emphasis does not rest, on me, a mere enclitic in the Greek, as if implying that they had injured God and Christ. As the verb is aorist like those which follow, it seems best to refer this to that time of his first preaching. In that case the meaning I have no personal grounds of complaint (adopted by many from Chrysostom to Lightfoot) is untenable. He begins with this clause to adduce their former treatment of him, as a reason for becoming as he is. The next clause is not strictly adversative.R.]
Gal 4:13. Yea ye know that on account of infirmity of the flesh.The only correct, because the only grammatical explanation, is: On account of weakness of the flesh, so it appears from this, that Paul was necessitated, on his first journey through Galatia, to linger there, although properly it had not lain in his plan, and that he had during this compulsory sojourn preached the gospel to the Galatians. How and from what cause he was suffering, whether from natural sickness, or from injuries undergone for the gospels sake, we do not know. Paul does not, by the mention of a previously unintended activity among the Galatians, work against his purpose, but rather right in the line of his purpose, since the love which received him so heartily and joyfully, must have been so much the greater, the less it was founded on the duty of a thankfulness owing for a benefit previously intended for the receivers, and for efforts made strictly on their account (Meyer);or rather, perhaps; the less he, considering the impediment of his bodily condition, could expect such a reception (Wieseler). That is, we suppose, because, through his infirmity he was in many ways impeded in his public labors, because his preaching of the gospel was a variously marred, imperfect one. He means to say then, that he preached in a state of bodily weakness. But the words themselves are not to be so translated. [Wordsworth: On account of the infirmity in his flesh and the consequent temptation to his hearers, he was naturally ledperhaps he was guided by the Holy Spiritto shun in the first instance the more civilized population, of Asia and Europe, as to go rather to the despised Galilees of the world and then when his reputation was established, to proceed through Macedonia to Athens, and thence to Corinth and to Ephesus, and so finally to Rome. But this learned author can scarcely be warranted in making this the implication in , as he does, in order to deny a second visit to Galatia.R.] apparently not=formerly, referring generally to time past viewed from the present; for the addition would then be entirely superfluous; but special=the first of two definite occasions. The second time of preaching is, however, not the present writing of the Epistle, for is invariably used of oral preaching; but there is a twofold presence of the Apostle among the Galatians presupposed, to the first of which the refers. In fact, the book of Acts also mentions two visits of Paul in Galatia, Act 16:6; Act 18:23. Paul therefore adds in order to designate with full distinctness the first visit, during which he founded the churches. At his second visit, also, the joyful experiences which he had had were not repeated; the churches were already infected with Judaism (Meyer).
Gal 4:14. With the reading it appears best to set a period after , and to connect the words with Gal 4:13=you know how you, through my bodily infirmity, and the hampering of my evangelical activity in consequence of it, were put on proof=experienced the temptation to think unfavorably of me. Unquestionably the connection is somewhat difficult. But plainly the connection with what follows is wholly inadmissible, although Meyer accepts it=you have not despised your trial in my flesh. But what is meant by despising the trial, &c.? Who could understand it at all? Meyer himself has to alter the expression somewhat, so as to mean : contemptuously repel. And besides what would be signified by the climatic expression with two words: and . This, however, manifestly constitutes the antithesis to the strong affirmative expression . . . The one as well as the other therefore refers to himself. He praises this in them, that they did not reject and even spit out him, as there was room to apprehend, butthe exact oppositereceived him as an angel, nay, as Christ. [The reading must be adopted, but this by no means compels us to follow the punctuation and connection just indicated. Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth, Lightfoot and most editors reject Lachmanns punctuation, which makes the latter part of the verse intolerably harsh and abrupt, and does little to remove the difficulty of the former part. As Wordsworth intimates the teachers infirmity is the peoples trial. Pauls infirmity, whatever it was, put them on trial, was the thing which tried them ( ), and yet they did not despise and loathe him on account of this infirmity, but received him, etc.R.]
Gal 4:15. What was then [or where then is] the blessedness ye spake of? [The E. V. gives a sufficiently correct paraphrase, if be read.R.] Weiseler:= How highly blessed you pronounced yourselves, sc. that you were able to hear me? –=how great. comes in somewhat abruptly, but is explained by the emotional character of the style. Paul transfers himself vividly into the time when they received him with such veneration, and exclaims: How was it then, what a boasting of blessedness then arose?With that agrees, as a proof, what follows: For I bear you record.Meyer: Of what character then was you boasting of blessedness?=how inconstant? More farfetched is the explanation: On what was your boasting of blessedness founded? Others supply : What then is your boasting of blessedness?=it is nothing any longer; it is at an end, therefore somewhat in the sense of But the following does not agree with this.
That, if it had been possible, etc.A proverbial mode of speech, derived from the high value and indispensableness of the eyes. Puerile is the explanation: Paul had an opthalmia, and says here, that the Gailatians, if it had been possible would have given him their sound eyes. [The E. V. your own eyes, giving an emphasis, unwarranted by the Greek, favors this theory of opthalmia. It is well defended by Dr. Brown, Hor Subsceciv, yet scarcely sustained by this passage.R.]
Gal 4:16. So then, am I become your enemy.A sharp antithesis. The simplest sense: Since you were so minded towards me, can I be afterwards regarded as your enemy only because I tell you the truth (instead of speaking according to your fancy). The sentence is introduced somewhat abruptly, or the inference implied in is not so very obvious. It may be explained, however, from the emotional character of the language. The emphasis lies on tell the truth; but in the first instance enemy (), as. constituting a contrast, must be made prominent; it therefore stands first, and by placing at the end, this also is emphasized. The Apostle had already told the Galatians the truth, rebuking their errors and short-comings, before the writing of his Epistle (for this they had not seen as yet), at a second visit in person among them. [The present form of the E. V. seems against this, but the participle means by telling the truth, which of course admits of a part reference. Wordsworth renders being true, to avoid the admission of a second visit.R. ]
Gal 4:17. They pay you court in no honest way.[So Ellicott. Lightfoot: As would seem to have one and the same sense throughout this passage, its more ordinary meanings with the accusative, as to admire, emulate, must be discarded. It signifies rather to busy ones self about, take interest in, a sense which lies close to the original meaning of if correctly derived from . So Schmoller liebeifern.R.] They also, it is true [sc. the false teachers; for we usually abstain from naming; those whose very names produce in us dislike and aversion (Calvin)] will fain have an affectionate zeal towards you, and contend for the possession of you: but in view of the truth, that, while they will bring you out of affectionate zeal, is worse than what you already have, we must say; they are zealous for you to no good. Ewald.They desire to exclude you,first from me, and thus from the pure gospel to them and their teaching.Iva, (that) with the indicative present is certainly harsh; but Meyers interpretation is altogether too forced. He feels himself obliged on account of this harshness to take iva=ubi, in quo statu; whereby, by which exclusion, when it has taken place, you, with your zeal are directed to them as objects of your interest. [The final sense of , i.e., they do it for this purpose, is preferable; the indicative being regarded by Alford and Ellicott as a solecism, though Lightfoot remarks that this usage, while quite unclassical, is often found in later writers. Meyer, insists very strongly however upon the local sense.R.]
Gal 4:18. But it is good to be courted in a good way at all times.The courting of which they are the objects, he has been obliged to censure, and accordingly he adds (turning to the readers themselves): It is indeed good () to be an object of the affectionate zeal of others, good to be zealously lovedbut only in a good thing. It, is only good to be zealously loved in a good laudable cause, and for the sake of it, but not as now, on account of an evil cause, namely, apostacy from the truth. This thought Paul completes by the addition: At all times it is good to be loved for the sake of a good cause. But (he says) more accurately considered, it is only good, when one is zealously loved at all times, for the sake of a good cause, and not merely for a while, or at certain times, i. e., when one is always worthy of zealous love (for the sake of a good cause). This thought however, Paul does not leave thus general, but suddenlydisturbing the concinuity of the discourse, though quite in congruity with the emotion expressed in the language of this sectiongives it a definite applicationnot only when I am present with you.Then you showed yourselves worthy of love, but, alas, not now, when I am not with you.Meyer and Wieseler understand the beginning of the sentence thus: good it is, that zeal is shown, etc.; and not so that the Galatians are understood as the objects of the zed, but so that the zeal is opposed to the zeal of the false teachers, which was , But justice is not thus done to the passive infinitive. [This verse has caused much discussion. The following results seem clear: 1. That the verb is to retain the same meaning throughout. 2. That the last infinitive is passive, and the Galatians the object. But 3. the force of is doubtful. It may be (a) merely adverbial (Ellicott). It is a good thing to be the object of courting in an honest way (as you are by me, though not by them) at all times, and not merely when I happen to be with you. (b) It may indicate the sphere, in contrast with that of the false teachers (Alford). It is a good thing (for you) to be the objects of this zeal, in a good cause, at all times and by every body, not only when I am present with you. I do not grudge the court that is paid you. Only let them do it in an honorable cause, (c) Or the phrase may be pressed, as is done by Schmoller, to imply a contrast between their present and their former state. Lightfoot prefers a view similar to this, but, as he admits, it supplies too much. As (b) is entirely consistent with the requirements of 1, and 2, it seems preferable.R.]
[Many commentators (including Bengel, Wordsworth, Lightfoot) put a comma at the close of Gal 4:18, thus joining the next verse most closely with this section. There is a sufficient change of tone and thought to justify a full stop, but it seems doubtful whether a new section or paragraph should begin with Gal 4:19. Most commentators, even those who separate Gal 4:18-19, begin the new paragraph with Gal 4:21; with more propriety apparently. Schmoller, however, joins Gal 4:19 with Gal 4:21, and divides the sections accordingly. While the matter is not of sufficient moment to warrant an alteration of his arrangement, the usual division presents the Apostles thought more satisfactorily. See Exeg. Notes on Gal 4:19-20 in the next section.R.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The characteristic of heathenism is, lack of the knowledge of God. A heathen was before his conversion an atheist (Eph 2:12). True they had a certain religiosity, but Knowledge of God is for Paul at least, a very definite positive idea, essentially distinct from that religiosity. What the heathen worship are by nature not gods.A hint not to overvalue in an unscriptural manner the religious feeling of the heathen world, which manifested itself in idolatrous worship; also not to see in it too readily anything positive, a prophecy of the true knowledge of God, something only different from it in degree. Rather, it is something negative, a having lost the truth, or at most an echo of that truth which in its main substance is lost. For, according to Romans 1, the heathen also had indeed originally a knowledge of God, but this before they became heathen by their being servants to them which are by nature not gods; with the coming in of this servitude they lost the knowledge of God. Very different then was the standing of the Israelite from that of the heathen, i. e., although he was in bondage under the rudiments of the world, yes, shut up under sin, he was yet one knowing God, not without God () in the world.
2. Confidence between teachers and hearers.There must be more depending on hearty confidence between teachers and hearers, than is commonly thought, because the Apostle so solicitously strives for it, and assures them he has not lost his affection for them, but is still mindful of their first love. Rieger.The preacher, it is true, is in the first place only the bearer and bringer of the divine word, and it is primarily this itself, which opens and wins hearts. The man, compared with the word which he brings, falls entirely into the background, as appears from the very declarations of Paul in this section. Had not the word which he brought, in itself won hearts, had not these conceived confidence in the word as such, for the sake of its contents, Paul himself would have found no access among them; for in his personal appearance, in view of the weakness of the flesh, with which he came, there was at least nothing captivating to the hearts of men.But on the other hand, simultaneously with the receiving of the word, there is also formed a personal relation to the bringer of it; he is not a mere instrument, but a personality, and in his bringing of the word comes into consideration as such. A bond of confidence and love is knit between the hearer and the teacher; to him who brings what searches the heart in its inmost recesses, who proclaims to us the word of salvation and eternal life, our heart must also necessarily turn in love, if it has suffered the word to gain any hold of it whatever. And on the other hand the personal bond which is formed, will then in its turn have an essential influence in promoting the reception of the word and steadfastness in faith. The preacher may also, as Paul shows, expressly appeal to this personal relation, may and should value highly the love which he experiences, maynot indeed affect an injured tone when it is withdrawn from him, but may well, when the Church has in any way gone astray, use the personal relation that has been formed, as a motive in his admonitions.
[3. Observance of days, etc. The scrupulous observance of days and months and seasons and years, is to the Apostle a token that his labor in the gospel has not resulted in appropriate effects. These things belong to the weak and beggarly elements, to which the Galatians were returning. That there is no allusion to the observance of the Lords Day is evident, for this cannot be classed among these rudiments, to which they desire to be again anew in bondage. It could not be classed among heathen rudiments, for they knew nothing of it; nor with the bondage of the law, for Gods Sabbatic law ante-dated the Mosaic law (comp. the fourth commandment, Remember). And whatever of legal bondage had been linked with the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was eliminated together with the change to the first day of the week. This at once removes the Lords Day from the category of days (Gal 4:10), and also of weak and beggarly elements (Gal 4:9). The mode of observance is learned from the Lords words: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, which at the same time imply, when rightly understood, the perpetual necessity for a Sabbath.R.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Gal 4:8. Cramer:To reflect often on our former miserable condition of heathenism, serves to move us to thanksgiving for the benefit received. Luther:There is a twofold knowledge of God, a common and a special. The common all men have by nature, in that they know that there is a God, who has made heaven and earth, &c. But how our Lord God is minded towards us, what He will give us and do for us, that we may be redeemed from sin and be saved, of that men know nothing. They know not what pleases or displeases God, and so adore, instead of the actual God, something that their own heart has dreamed out and feigningly devised, but which, in very truth, is naught.[Brown:In false religion in all its forms, nothing is more remarkable than its enslaving, degrading influence on the minds of its votaries.R.]
Gal 4:9. Luther:We are known of God, rather than we know Him. For what we do towards such knowledge is nothing else than to hold still, and let God occupy Himself with us, namely, by giving us His word, which we lay hold of through the faith which He also works in us, and thus to become Gods children.We shall not fare better than the dear Apostles themselves fared, who in their lifetime had to see the congregations that had been built up through their office with much pains and labor, so sadly torn down, that for very pity their heart was ready to break.It may easily and quickly happen, that one apostatize from the truth. For even Christians, who are in earnest as to sound doctrine, consider not sufficiently, how precious and most needful a treasure is the right and true knowledge of Christ. Besides there are exceeding few among those (hat hear the preaching of faith, that are tried by the holy cross and spiritual conflict, and that sometimes have with sin, death and devil a skirmish, but the greater part live on in all security, without all combat and strife. So long as they have sound teachers with them, they speak according to them; but when these their true teachers are away, and the wolves in sheeps clothing come creeping in, at once that takes place with them, which happened to the Galatians, namely, that they are soon and easily seduced and perverted.When the foundation is destroyed, it is then all one, whether men turn themselves to the law, or to idols. Whoever falls from grace upon the law, has as hard a fall as he that falls from grace into heathenism, for out of Christ there, is nothing else than idolatry and a vain image of God.To the weak and beggarly rudiments. When the law accomplishes its right and fitting work or office, it accuses and condemns men; then it is not a weak and beggarly element, but strong and rich, yea, it is an immeasurable, inviucible power and wealth, against which the conscience is indeed weak and poor.It is most admirable that St. Paul speaks so contemptuously of the law. For he does it to this end, that they who will through the law be made righteous, may from day to day become still weaker and more beggarly. For they are of themselves weak and beggarly, i. e., by nature children of wrath and guilty of perdition, and lay hold then on that which also is nothing else than merely infirmity and beggary, whereby they will fain become strong and rich.
Gal 4:10. Ye carefully observe days. Here might some one say: If the good Galatians did so great a sin, in that they observed days, months, seasons, &c, how comes it then, that ye do not also sin, who yet do the like? Answer: in that we keep Sunday, Christmas, Easter, and the like days of solemnity or festivals, we do it with all freedom, we burden with such ceremonies no ones conscience, nor teach, that men must needs keep them, in order to be thereby justified and saved, or to make satisfaction for sin. But on this account we keep them, that matters may go on in the church in good discipline and order, and that outward unity may not be sundered (for inwardly we have another unity). But the principal cause is this, that the ministry may remain in its full exercise, and that the people may have their certain appointed time, when they may come together, hear Gods word, and therefrom know God. Item, that they may take the sacrament, pray in common for all necessities of all Christendom, and may thank our dear Lord God for all His benefits. Berlenb. Bible:In such things that is even against Christianity which is urged upon men over and above Christianity. He that can comprehend what mischief the evangelical spirit sufers from such patch work, has made great progress.
Gal 4:11. Heubner:The teacher labors upon an uncertainty, knows not what he accomplishes, he sows upon hope.
Gal 4:12-20. Rieger:As much depends on such earnest remonstrances for opening the hearers hearts, as on the most convincing arguments.
Gal 4:12. Spener:A true pastor is sensitive in no particular, save in what is contrary to the honor of God, and the salvation of His flock.Luther:That he gives the Galatians so good words, is as much as to mix and temper the bitter wormwood drink so with honey and sugar that it may become sweet and pleasant. Even so do parents, when they have well flogged their children, give them good words, give them gingerbread, apples, pears, nuts and the like, that the children may take note and understand that their parents have at heart their good.
Gal 4:13-14. It may well be that human reason stumbles and starts back, when it beholds the slight, contemptible and weak nature of the dear Christians, wherein there is so much of suffering, yea, the world has ever counted all Gods servants for great fools, who will fain comfort, help and counsel others, item, inasmuch as they boast of so great heavenly possessions and treasures, of righteousness, power, strength, victory over sin, death and all evil, of everlasting joy, &c., and are yet the poorest beggars, and moreover weak, troubled and despised.Starke:True servants of the gospel are angels of God, as having the name of messengers and heralds of the divine will, even as also the invisible and heavenly spirits bear the name of angels from a like office.Lange:If teachers wish to be looked on as angels of God, and in a certain sense as Christ Himself, they must also approve themselves as good angels, and not as Satans angels and servants, and discharge their office with such purity, as they have Paul for an example.[Burkitt:It is an high commendation to a people, when neither poverty nor deformity, nor any deficiency, which may render a minister of the gospel base and contemptible in the estimation of the world, can possibly diminish any thing of that respect which they know to be due and payable unto him.R.]
Gal 4:15. Heubner:Let the apostate reflect, when the was happiest, how blessed he was before he fell.Berlenb. Bib.:As indeed we are owing more than the eyes of the body, to those that have opened to us the eyes of the soul.Hedinger:A beautiful proof of faith, to love those from the heart, that plant faith within us! O the horror, that some would gladly tear out tongue and eyes from those that teach us the word of the kingdom of heaven!Cramer:It is everywhere the same, that new preachers are welcome, and soon get followers and a great concourse. While the sign is new, it is hung against the wall; but when it is old, it is thrown under the bench.[Brown:When the gospel is remarkably successful, the danger is not of converts not being sufficiently attached, but of their being inordinately attached, to the minister who has been the instrument of conveying to them so great a benefit. The being greatly applauded, is scarcely any proof that a minister has been successful; the being highly esteemed and cordially loved, is a considerably strong presumption that he has; the being regarded with indifference and dislike, is a clear proof that he has not.R.]
Gal 4:16. Heubner:Him who tells us the truth, we ought to count for our true and best friend.Luther:In the world matters go altogether strangely and against reason, namely, he that speaks truth becomes an unwelcome guest, yea, is counted for an enemy; but this is not so among good friends, and still less among Christians.Starke:He that bates any one, because he tells him the truth, such an one betrays himself very clearly as no child of God.
Gal 4:17. Luther:This is the way of all false spirits, to put on a friendly behavior, and give people the best words, so as to get a hold. When they first come creeping in, they swear most fervently, that they seek nothing else than alone how they may further Gods honor and mens salvation; they promise to those that receive their teaching, that they shall certainly be saved. And with such assumed appearance of godliness and sheeps clothing, the ravening wolves do immensely great harm to the Christian church, where pastors are not active and vigilant and earnest to withstand them.Rieger:Great pains given to any thing, great certainty assumed concerning it, is indeed something very taking to mens minds; but zeal alone gives no certain proof of truth. The doctrine is not to be judged according to the zeal, but the zeal according to the doctrine. The zeal does not make the cause good, but the cause must make the zeal good.[Bunyan:Zeal without knowledge is like a mettled horse without eyes or like a sword in a madmans hands.Riccaltoun:In reading the history of the church it is hard to say whether what has gone, and still goes under the name of zeal, has done more good or hurt to religion.Burkitt:The old practice has ever been amongst seducers, first to alienate the peoples minds from their own teachers, and next get themselves looked upon as alone, and only worthy to have room in the peoples hearts.R.]
Gal 4:18. Starke:Zeal for good must be enduring.This is a human feeling, which exists in many, even pious souls. They are zealous in good, when faithful teachers are present, but when they are absent, or it may be dead, they : slacken in their zeal.
Footnotes:
[10]1 Gal 4:8.[The idea of servitude rather than service is more accordant with the connection of thought.R.]
[11]Gal 4:8.Lachmann, Tischendorf read , instead of . Rec. [The former reading is that of . A, B, C, and modern editors generally.R.]
[12]Gal 4:9.[The tense here is the same as in the preceding clause, and the translation must conform.R.]
[13]Gal 4:9.[The construction is like Gal 2:14.The rendering above given retains the force of the present: ye are in process of turning.R.]
[14]Gal 4:12.[become. In the next clause the same verb is to be supplied. The better division of verses would join the last clause with Gal 4:13, as the better pointing transposes the period and colon.R.]
[15]Gal 4:13.[This rendering of may now be considered as established.R.]
[16]Gal 4:14.The reading . is followed. So [1A. B. D.1 F., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Bagge, Ellicott, Alford, Wordsworth, Lightfoot.R.] Rec. reads . ; its, sense is: You have not despised my bodily temptation=me on account of my sickness, by which I was tempted of God. But M.S. authority is strongest for . Evidently this was not understood, and the Recepta is a conjectural emendation, based on a false interpretation. was understood as calamitas, as an infirmity in the body of Paul himself, because in Gal 4:13 this is spoken of; and so had either to be entirely erased, or replaced by ; and added to connect with . On the sense of the approved reading, see Exeg. Notes. [Schmoller follows Lachmanns punctuation, which puts a full stop after , but this is objectionable, and not adopted by later editors. It is better to put a comma only after rejected.R.]
[17]Gal 4:15.There are three readings: 1) The Recepta, . 2) The same, only without . 3) . without which gives no sense with . The last reading is well supported, and found in ., but seems to be a very old gloss; for a change of into the more difficult cannot readily be explained. Of the two others, 2) seems preferable, though we cannot definitely decide, [ is adopted by Tischendorf. Alford, Wordsworth, Lightfoot; , without by Ellicott. If we adopt 1) or 2), the E. V. must be altered: What then wasi. e. of what kind was, etc.R.]
[18]Gal 4:15.[Own is not warranted by the simple .R.]
[19]Gal 4:17.[On the alterations, Gal 4:17-18, see Exeg. Notes. Ellicotts translation has been adopted only in part.R.]
[20]Gal 4:17. [instead of .R.] is an unnecessary conjecture [of Bezas].
[21]Gal 4:18.The reading is an unnecessary conjecture in all probability, though found in . B. [Rejected by all editors of importance. Meyer, Ellicott, Wordsworth, read ; Lachmann, Alford, Lightfoot omit the article. It probably disappeared with the incorrect reading of the verb in some MSS.R.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
(7) Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (8) Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (9) But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? (10) Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. (11) I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. (12) Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. (13) Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. (14) 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. (15) 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. (16) Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (17) They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. (18) But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
There will need no particular observations by way of Comment upon this paragraph. The subject is chiefly personal, in relation to the Church of Galatia at that time. We may remark indeed, that from what the Apostle saith, there was great leanness of soul among them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Ver. 8. Ye did service ] Here all religious service done to any but God is manifestly condemned as impious, whether in pagans or papagans (papists).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8 11 .] Appeal to them , as the result of the conclusion just arrived at, why, having passed out of slavery into freedom, they were now going back again .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
8 .] refers back for its time, not to Gal 4:3 , as Windischmann, but to , Gal 4:7 .
In . ., there is no inconsistency with Rom 1:21 ; there it is the knowledge which the Gentile world might have had: here, the matter of fact is alleged, that they had it not .
. ] to gods, which by nature exist not : see 1Co 8:4 ; 1Co 10:19-20 and note. The rec. would be, “ to those which are not by nature gods ,” i.e. only made into gods by human fancy: but this is not the Apostle’s way of conceiving of the heathen deities. Meyer compares 2Ch 13:9 , . Notice giving the Apostle’s judgment of their non-existence and see 2Co 5:21 note, where however I cannot hold with Ellic., that expresses ‘ God’s judgment ’ (?).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 4:8-10 . BUT THOUGH IN TIME PAST WHEN YOU KNEW NOT GOD YOU WERE SLAVES TO FALSE GODS, HOW CAN YOU, NOW THAT YOU HAVE LEARNT TO KNOW HIM, OR RATHER HAVE BEEN RECOGNISED BY HIM, TURN BACK TO THE LESSONS OF CHILDHOOD AND CRAVE A BONDAGE TO TIMES AND SEASONS? The guilt of past idolatry is palliated on the score of ignorance, in the same spirit as in Act 17:30 , in order to press home the responsibility of those who have learnt to know God ( ) in Christ. There was some excuse for their former bondage to imaginary gods who had no real existence: but how can they now turn back in heart to the weak and beggarly lessons of their spiritual childhood after they have received the spirit of sonship? Instead of ruling their own lives by reason and conscience under the guidance of the Spirit like men in Christ, they are bent on subjecting themselves like children to elementary rules of formal service.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gal 4:8-11
8However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Gal 4:8 “However at that time, when you did not know God” This is a perfect active participle which emphasizes a settled state. Although some modern commentators have tried to identify this with a Jewish background, it fits much better with the concept of the Gentiles who were pagans estranged from God (cf. Eph 2:12-13; Col 1:21). It is true that all humans have the potential of knowing God both from creation (Psa 19:1-5 and Rom 1:19-20) and also an inner moral witness (cf. Rom 2:14-15). This knowledge is called “natural revelation,” but the Bible asserts that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, have rejected this knowledge (cf. Rom 3:23).
“Know” is used both in its Hebrew sense of interpersonal, intimate, family relationships and its Greek sense of cognitive content but the focus here is on the Greek sense as Gal 4:9 is on the Hebrew sense.
“you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods” Idol worship is vain and futile (cf. Act 17:29 and 1Co 8:4-5). However, Paul asserted that behind the vanity of idol worship is demonic activity (cf. 1Co 10:20; Rev 9:20). Mankind’s slavery to the demonic is also implied in the verb of 1Co 12:2. Paul may have been referring to one of several possible things:
1. the stoicheia of Gal 4:3; Gal 4:9
2. pagan idols
3. demons behind pagan idols
4. the Jewish Law, which in its legalism and ritualism had replaced YHWH
Gal 4:9 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” The time element in Gal 4:8 is contrasted with Gal 4:9. In Gal 4:9 Paul used another powerful, rhetorical question as he did in Gal 3:1-5; Gal 3:19; Gal 3:21; Gal 4:15. “Know” (ginsk) in Gal 4:9 is a different, and perhaps, more relational Greek word choice than the term used in Gal 4:8 (oida), although it is hard to make this distinction in Koine Greek. This term theologically carries the Hebrew connotation of knowledge as an interpersonal relationship (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5). Their new relationship was not based on facts about God but God’s initiating a new covenant through Christ with those who had been estranged (cf. Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13).
NASB”how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things”
NKJV”how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements”
NRSV”how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits”
TEV”how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits”
NJB”how can you want to go back to elemental things like these, that can do nothing and give nothing”
This is a present active indicative of a Greek term that reflects the OT concept (shuv, BDB 996) of repentance (turning back). This verse contains the word stoicheia, as in Gal 4:3. They were trading the slavery of paganism for the slavery of Judaism as a means of salvation. Both Judaism and paganism were subject to the stoicheia (see note at Gal 4:8)! These fallen world structures are completely inadequate to bring salvation.
The stoichea are described as “weak and worthless,” which is parallel to Col 2:15; Col 2:20.
Gal 4:10 “You observe days and months and seasons and years” This is a present middle indicative representing continuing action, in this case, a personal, scrupulous religious observancea reference to the Jewish religious calendar (cf. Col 2:16). These Galatians were exchanging one religious calendar (pagan) for another (Jewish). Paul’s understanding of the gospel allowed him to apply the truth to different situations. The situation in the Galatian churches required Paul to oppose legalism and works righteousness. However, in Romans 14, Paul encouraged strong believers not to judge weaker believers who respected certain days (cf. Rom 14:5-6). In Galatians it is a matter of the proper understanding of the gospel, in Romans it concerns Christian fellowship (cf. 1 Corinthians 8, 10).
Gal 4:11
NASB”I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain”
NKJV”I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain”
NRSV”I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted”
TEV”I am afraid for you! Can it be that all my work for you has been for nothing”
NJB”You make me feel I have wasted my time with you”
Several modern versions translate this verse in reference to Paul’s labor among the Galatian churches (cf. JB and Revised English Bible). However, this verse could be related to Paul’s concern for the Galatian believers themselves (cf. TEV). There are two possibilities.
1. Paul was not doubting their salvation but rather their usefulness in spreading, living, and enjoying the radically free gospel
2. Paul was fearful they were rejecting grace for human performance (cf. Gal 3:4; Gal 5:2-4)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
knew. Greek. oida, App-132.
not. Greek. ou. App-105.
did service. Greek. douleuo. App-190. Compare Gal 4:3.
unto = to.
no = not. Greek. me. App-105.
gods. App-98,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8-11.] Appeal to them, as the result of the conclusion just arrived at, why, having passed out of slavery into freedom, they were now going back again.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 4:8. , then) when we were children [Gal 4:1].- , not knowing God) The very wretched state of the Gentiles.-, ye did service) being under a different bondage from that of the Jews, Gal 4:3. You worshipped gods not true with a worship not true. You had not been accustomed to the Mosaic worship; and therefore it is more a matter of wonder, that you now desire [affect] it. You attained to the truth without those elements, and now at length [for the first time] you follow them.- ) So the LXX., , 2Ch 13:9.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 4:8
Gal 4:8
Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods:-This seems more especially spoken to the Gentile converts among the Galatian Christians. They had known God only a short while, and before they knew him they had worshipped idols which are no gods. They are in their very nature devoid of all qualities of God. The Jews were liable to this same charge, for they had, in time past, while claiming to believe in God, gone into the worship of idols.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Lecture 10
The Elements Of The World
Gal 4:8-20
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. 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? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. (vv. 8-20)
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. We have seen in this epistle that the Galatians, who had been brought out of heathen darkness into the light and liberty of the gospel through the ministry of the apostle Paul, had fallen under the charm-shall I say?-of certain Judaizing teachers who were carrying them into subjection to the law of Moses, telling them that unless they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses they could not be saved, that while they began in faith, they had to complete their salvation through works of their own, acquiring merit by obedience to the commands of the law. The apostle has been showing them that the law could only condemn, could only kill, could not justify, could not give life, neither could it sanctify, and that our sanctification is as truly by faith as is our justification.
Now he reasons with them, trying to show the folly of their course in giving up Christianity with all its liberty and light for the twilight and bondage of Judaism. Why, he says, you were heathen when I came to you. You were enslaved to heathen customs, you served those that you esteemed to be gods who really are not gods, you were worshipers of idols, and you know that in those days you were misled by pagan priest craft. There were certain things you could not eat, places you could not go, things you could not touch. There were different kinds of offerings that you had to bring, there were charms against evil spirits, and amulets, and talismans. You were slaves to worldly customs in those days of your heathenism. The thing that amazes me is that you should be willing to go into another bondage after having known something of the liberty of grace. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Notice that expression, After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God. There are the two sides to it. We often say to people, Do you know Jesus? But it means more to realize that Jesus knows you, to be able to say, Thank God, He knows me, and He knew about me in my sin, and He loved me and gave Himself for me. We sometimes say, Have you found Jesus? Of course the Word of God says, Seek, and ye shall find, and the Lord bids us to call upon Him while He is near, but it is a more wonderful truth that He seeks us. We have heard of the little boy who was approached by a Christian worker who said to him, My boy, have you found Jesus? And the little fellow looked up with a perturbed expression and said, Why, please, sir, I didnt know He was lost, but I was, and He found me. That is it.
I was lost, but Jesus found me,
Found the sheep that went astray;
Threw His loving arms around me,
Drew me back into His way.
God knew me long before I knew Him. He knows me now, since I have trusted Christ, as His child, and Paul says, Isnt it a shame that after you have known God, or rather have been known of God, after you have come into this blessed relationship with Him as your Father, if you really know what it is to be born again, isnt it strange that you would turn now to as legal a system as that from which you were delivered when first brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Someone might say, But what do you mean? They were turning to law, to observing Jewish feasts and Jewish Sabbath, Jewish ceremonies. But they never knew those things in their heathen days. Why does he say, How turn ye again? The principle was exactly the same. Why do the heathen go through their forms and ceremonies? Because they hope to gain merit and save their souls. Why did the Jews go through all their rites and ceremonies? That they might please God in that way, and so gain merit and eventually save their souls. The principle is just the same, whether you try to save yourself by offering your own child or the dearest thing you have on a heathen altar, whether you keep the seventh-day Sabbath, as some people do today, and thereby hope to save themselves, or whether you observe the heathen feast days and hope to please the heathen gods thereby. The Jewish festivals have been fulfilled in Christ, and we are not going back to them, hoping to please God by their observance. They had their place once, and men of faith could observe them in obedience to the Word of God, but that place is not theirs now, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom 10:4). All these ceremonies were merely shadows of things to come. Now that the reality is come, why go back to the shadow? We are not going to be occupied with the type since we have the Antitype; we are not going to be occupied with pictures when we have the Reality. The worldly principle, of course, is to try to merit salvation by works of your own.
There are only two religions in the world, the true and the false. All forms of false religion are alike, they all say, Something in my hand I bring, the only difference being in what that something is. But the true religion, the revelation from heaven, leads a man to sing, Nothing in my hand I bring. Christianity says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Tit 3:5). We see Christians today who turn to symbols and pictures as a means of helping them spiritually, but they are just going back to the elements of the world. If you were to ask a heathen, Is this idol your god? some would say, Yes, but an intelligent heathen would reply, No, it is not exactly that I consider that idol as my god, but it represents my god; it helps me to enter into communion with my god. You see just the same thing in Christendom where some churches are filled with images. They are not images of Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Isis, or Osiris, but images just the same-images of Saint Joseph, Saint Barnabas, Saint Paul, the twelve apostles, the blessed Virgin Mary, and even of Christ. Candles are burning in front of them and people bow before them. We ask, Why do you not worship God? Why worship these images? And they answer, We do not worship them; we reverence them, and they are simply aids to worship. These images help to stir up our spirits and help us to worship.
I heard a Protestant minister speaking to a group of ministers and he said, I find that it is very helpful to have before me a very beautiful picture of the thorn-crowned Christ. He mentioned a painting by a certain artist, and said, I have that framed; and when I want to come to the Lord I like to drop everything else and sit and contemplate that picture for a while, and I begin to realize more and more what He has done for me. That draws out my heart in worship and adoration. How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? There is no painter on earth who can paint my Christ. You need to go to the Bible to get that picture. If you want to be stirred up and put in a worshipful spirit, sit down over your Bible and read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, or the account in the Gospels of what Christ accomplished, and as you are occupied with the truth of God your heart will be drawn out in worship. You do not need pictures to help you to worship. These are just the weak and beggarly elements of the world. In the dispensation of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are to worship in spirit and in truth.
So the apostle says, I am sorry to see you go back to these things-Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. That is, they were going back to the Jewish Sabbath and other holy days and festivals, the Jewish Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee. But, you see, these things are not binding on us today. Why? Because the Sabbath day of the Jews has found its fulfillment in Him who said, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mat 11:28). There remaineth therefore a rest (a true Sabbath-keeping) to the people of God (Heb 4:9). We have found our Sabbath in Christ, and so we observe the first day of the week, the day of His resurrection, not in order to gain merit but because we are glad to have the privilege of coming together as a company of worshiping believers and to take advantage of the opportunity to preach the gospel of the grace of God. That seventh-day Sabbath was the memorial of Israels deliverance from Egypt. That does not apply to us, but we have found its fulfillment in Christ. Some may ask, Are you quite certain that the Sabbath of the law is included among the shadows? Yes, turn to Col 2:16-17: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Do you not see?-it was the Sabbath of old, one days rest in seven. Now I have Jesus, and I have seven days rest in seven. I have rest in Him continually and am delivered from the Sabbath of the law.
Then there were sacred months. There was the month in which they had the Passover and the Feast of Firstfruits. Then the seventh month, in which was the great day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. But all of which those months and feasts speak has been fulfilled in Christ. He is the true Passover: Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1Co 5:7-8). The Feast of Firstfruits had its fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ, and it was He who said, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (Joh 12:24). Christ fell into the ground in death, and now has become the firstfruits of them that slept, and we worship with adoring gratitude for all that this means to us. The great day of Atonement has had its fulfillment in the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ was the sacrificed Victim whose precious blood makes atonement for the soul. We read, The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul (Lev 17:11). That is all fulfilled in Jesus. And He is the true fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast which carries us on to His coming back again when He will bring in everlasting righteousness. They were all given to point forward to the coming of the blessed Son of God, and His wondrous work.
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Many in Israel had fallen into the evil habit of consulting astrologers and others, and so were known as observers of times, but that was distinctly contrary to Gods mind, and He links it up with demons. Christians have nothing to do with anything like that. Then they observed sacred years. There was the Sabbatical year; every seventh year had to be set apart as a Sabbath to the Lord. You cannot pick out certain parts of the law and keep them only; if you are bound to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, you are bound to keep the seventh-year Sabbath also. But Paul says that as Christians we are delivered from all this. It was only bondage and we are free from it.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. He really stood in doubt as to whether they were truly converted. He remembered how they had confessed their sins, and the joy they had, and now he says, Was that not genuine? One may often feel like that about people. Some make a good start and apparently seem to be real Christians, but the next thing you know they are taken up with some most unscriptural thing, and you wonder whether it was all a mistake. If people are saved, they are sealed by the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth and He comes to guide them into all truth. Thank God, sometimes they are recovered, and then you know they were real, but if never recovered, we read, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us (1Jn 2:19).
Now he turns directly to these converts of his, and in the most tender way he says, Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. What does he mean? He is practically saying, There was a time in my life when I observed all these things that you are going into now; when all my hope of heaven was based upon working out a righteousness of my own; and I was very punctilious about all these things that you now are taking up. I observed the Passover, I kept the Feast of Firstfruits, the ordinances of the great day of the Atonement, and kept the Feast of Tabernacles. I did all these things that you are undertaking to do. I was careful about meats and drink, I looked upon certain foods as unclean and would have nothing to do with them, but I came to you as one of you. You did not know anything about the law, and I came to you as a man utterly delivered from the law of Moses, completely freed from it. I wish you would come over to where I am. Take your place now with me; I am not under law but under grace, and I want you to be under grace rather than under law. Before God, they were actually so, of course, if truly saved, but he would have them so in spirit.
He tells us elsewhere how he stood:
Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (1Co 9:20-22)
Let me illustrate Pauls position. He stands in the center between the two extremes. Over to the right are those under the law, the Jews; to the left are those without the law, the Gentiles, who do not know anything about the law of Moses. Now he says, I do not belong in either company since I am saved by grace, but stand here between the two, and being regenerated I am subject to Christ. In order that I may reach the Jew I go over there where he is, and am willing to sit down with him and partake of the kind of food he eats, and to go with him to his synagogue, in order that I may have an opportunity to preach to him. And I will use the law of Moses to show him his sin, and the prophets to show him the Savior. Then I go to the Gentiles, but I do not preach the law of Moses to them. He could say, When I came among you I took my place as a man not under law but in the liberty of grace, and preached Christ to you as the Savior of all who believe. I wish you would appreciate that enough to stand with me. You leave me and go to the place God took me out of before He saved me. Do you not see the mistake you are making? You are giving up grace for law.
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. He sought to touch their hearts by reminding them of those early days when he came to Antioch in Pisidia, and to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and preached the Word among them. All of these were Galatian cities. Did he come with pomp and ceremony, marvelous costumes, and candles and images? No, nothing like that. He came not as a great and mighty ecclesiastic, as one professing to have authority over them, but as a lowly man preaching Christ and Him crucified. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
Paul was used of God to heal many sick people, but he never healed himself, and did not ask anybody to heal him except God. He prayed for deliverance three times, but God said, I am not going to deliver you but-My grace is sufficient for thee, and Paul answered, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2Co 12:9). He was a sick man for years as he preached the gospel. He would come in among people, weak and tired and worn, and if there was not money enough to support him he would go to work and make tents to earn money for bread, and then at night would go and look for people to whom to preach Christ. He commended the gospel to these Galatians by his self-denying service and his readiness to suffer. As they (in those days, poor heathen) looked upon him they wondered that he should so love them, and they marveled at his message, and believed it, and were saved. Now he says, You have lost all that; you do not care anything about me any more; you have gone off after these false teachers, and you have lost your joy. 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. I take it that the suffering he endured had to do with his eyes. He probably had some affliction of the eyes that made it difficult for him to read and to see an audience, and it made his appearance mean when he stood upon the platform. Possibly they said, Poor Paul! If we could give him our eyes we would gladly do so! That is the way they once felt. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? It was these evil teachers that had upset them.
They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. In other words, they have come to make a prey of you with their false teaching, trying to affect you adversely in order that you might rally around them, for they want to get up a little party of their own. They are not seeking your good, but trying to extend their own influence. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. That is, it is good for a man to be zealous in what is right, it is good to go after people with the truth and bring them into the light, and they who had started in the truth should have continued in it.
And now in his deep affliction he exclaims, My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. In other words, I remember when you were saved, I went through the very pangs of birth in my soul, and now I am going through it all again because I am in such anxiety about you. I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. In other words, I am writing some strong things to you, but I would like to talk tenderly, lovingly, to you if I were only there. I am not sure about you. False religion never can give certainty, but the blessed, glorious gospel of the grace of God does. It fully assures us of complete and final salvation if we believe God. Who then would turn away deliberately from the liberty that we have in Christ to the bondage of some false system?
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Chapter 21
I Am Afraid of You
“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.”
Gal 4:8-12
The last words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, his son in the ministry and the young pastor of the church at Ephesus, were in the form of a charge. Those words form the charge and make up the binding oath of every faithful gospel preacher. In those words the Holy Spirit makes an unmistakable assertion of the duties of those who labor in the gospel.
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry (2Ti 4:1-5).
Paul was as good as his word. He loved the souls of Gods people and was faithful to them, proving himself to be the servant of Jesus Christ. He was watchful over the souls of men. He did the work of an evangelist. He carefully declared all the counsel of God, when it was popular to do so and when it was unpopular to do so. When the people of God erred, he was faithful and longsuffering, reproving their backslidings, rebuking their sins, and exhorting them to repentance. For all of this, he was abused, criticized, misunderstood, misrepresented, afflicted, and imprisoned. But he was, nonetheless, faithful to his calling; and when no man stood with him, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with him and strengthened him.
That is what is involved in the work of the ministry. The greatest blessing that God can give to any community is a faithful gospel preacher and a church wherein the gospel is freely proclaimed and boldly upheld. And the most terrible curse that can be brought upon any society of men is for God to stop the mouths of his servants. How clearly this is proven both in the Word of God and in history.
The Apostle Paul was, in the broadest sense of the term, a man of God. His work in the gospel was truly a labor of love. He had gone, at great sacrifice to himself, into the region of Galatia preaching the gospel of Gods redeeming grace and many were brought to Christ. As a result of his faithful labors, a gospel church was formed in Galatia. But after he left, the Galatians became influenced by Judaism and began to heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts. These teachers pampered their itching ears, caring more for their popularity and good name than for the souls of men. Soon, the Galatians would no longer stand for the sharp, but loving rebukes of Paul. He had become an enemy to them. Yet, he remained faithful to their souls. He loved them. Therefore, in the passage before us we see this broken hearted, loving preacher pleading with the erring children of God to repent of their evil ways and return to Christ.
The Galatians seemed ready to sacrifice all the blessings of the gospel: Full redemption by the blood of Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit giving them the assurance of sons before the Father and free access to heaven, and eternal glory. They seemed ready to give all of this up and return to their former state of slavery. For this, Pauls heart was breaking. And now he pleads with their very souls.
Once Idolaters
Paul knew that perhaps the surest way to win the hearts of these believers back to Christ and his gospel was to remind them of what he had done for them. Therefore, Paul reminds the Galatians of what they were before God, by his free-grace, called them. God had saved them out of heathen idolatry. “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods” (Gal 4:8). Let us be reminded of what God has done for us by his grace (1Co 6:9-11).
Men by nature are ignorant of God. Paul does not here teach that men have no knowledge of God at all, but that they have no proper, saving knowledge of him. All men by nature know that there is a God (Rom 1:19-20); and the law of God is written in their hearts (Rom 2:14-15). They suppress this knowledge in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). Their rebellion to that which they know, because God has revealed himself in creation, renders all men without excuse; but it can never save them. They refuse to acknowledge God (Rom 1:21). And, refusing to acknowledge him, all men are by nature ignorant of the glory of God revealed in Christ (Eph 2:12). They are blinded by Satan (2Co 4:4).
Yet, all men have a God consciousness, from which they cannot escape. Man is both a spiritual and a physical creature. Therefore, he must have an object of worship. Yet, all are so depraved and blind to all things spiritual that they turn to some creature of their own hands and worship it (Rom 1:25; 1Th 1:9). Men delight to have a god after their own image. It may be a physical object, or it may be a mental concept. Such idols are, as Paul puts it here, no gods. All the idols of men are nothing Rom 10:19; Rom 8:4-5). Not only are they not gods, they are nothing.
These Galatians had been delivered from heathen idolatry by the grace of God. And now they were despising Gods free-grace and returning to the doctrines of men. For this, Paul sharply rebukes them. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain (Gal 4:9-11).
Knowing God
Salvation is knowing God (Joh 17:3). It is the result of being known of God (Isa 53:11). Paul asserts that those who were born of God and taught of God at Galatia knew God. This saving knowledge of God is the promise of the New Covenant (Jer 31:33-34). This knowledge of God is the knowledge of Christ (Joh 6:44-46; Joh 1:14; Joh 1:18; 2Co 4:6; Heb 1:3). It is knowing God as he is revealed in Christ. It comes to chosen, redeemed sinners by divine revelation, by the irresistible power and grace of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel (2Co 4:4-7). Paul brought the knowledge of God to these Galatians by the preaching of the gospel (Isa 52:7; Rom 10:15).
They knew God because they were known of God. Those words are full of instruction. Paul is saying, You were actively known by God before there was any action on your part to win his knowledge. Gods knowledge of us is more than a bare, factual acquaintance of our existence and acts. It is an active, loving, eternal knowledge (Joh 10:14; 2Ti 2:19; Exo 3:12; Exo 3:17; Nah 1:7; Joh 10:28; Rom 8:28-29). Gods knowledge of his elect is particular (Mat 7:23), distinguishing (Rom 8:29-30), and eternal. His knowledge of us is his everlasting love for and delight with us in Christ. All our acquaintance with God begins with him. We know him because he first knew us.
Beggarly Elements
Paul was shocked that those men and women who had experienced such rich and bounteous grace at the hands of God would now turn from the riches of Christ (Eph 1:18) to the beggarly elements of the law. Therefore, he gives them this sharp, but loving rebuke. How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? These “weak and beggarly elements” are the vain traditions of sinful men, the religious ideas and principles that sinful men come to by nature as a means of finding favor with God. Jewish legalists and pagan idolaters alike are subject to them. They are the attempts of lost religionists to obtain salvation by something they do. Specifically, the Galatian saints, Gentiles to whom the law was never given, were being seduced into law observance by Jewish teachers who claimed to be followers of Christ.
Paul used words of scorn, words that were sure to offend the Judaizers and hopefully shame those who were being influenced by them. He speaks of all those ordinances of divine worship in the Old Testament, which have now been fulfilled by Christ, as weak and beggarly elements.
The law is weak, so weak that it is utterly incapable of helping anyone. It cannot give life. It is a ministration of death. It cannot give joy. It cannot give peace. It cannot give comfort. It cannot produce righteousness. It cannot bring salvation. The law is beggarly, too. It lies in the observation of poor things (meat and drinks and holy days), in comparison with Christ, in whom we have grace and mercy and life. The law is only a shadow of the riches of grace and glory revealed in Christ. Serving the law is nothing more than bondage and will-worship (Col 2:18-23).
Martin Luther wrote, People who prefer the law to the gospel are like Aesops dog who let go of the meat to snatch at the shadow in the waterThe law is weak and poor, the sinner is weak and poor: two feeble beggars trying to help each other. They cannot do it. They only wear each other out. But through Christ a weak and poor sinner is revived and enriched unto eternal life.
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years (Gal 4:10). Pauls obvious reference is to the Old Testament law requiring the Jews to observe certain holy days and the sabbath days prescribed in the Mosaic age (Col 2:16). The Judaizers were trying to impose these things upon Gentile believers, to whom such laws were never given. Legal ritualism and human tradition are the ruin of religion. They numb the soul and harden the heart.
All human religion is freewill/works religion, inherently legalistic and ritualistic, substituting the choice and works of man and the bondage of the law for a living, saving knowledge of God and eternal life in Christ, the life of liberty in the Spirit by faith in Christ alone, the glorious liberty of free justification by faith in Christ, a life ruled, animated, and motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. Christ has delivered us from that by his grace. Let us ever cling to him, refusing to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Having found that life that is worthy to be called life, why would anyone think of giving it up to go back to the bondage and futility of the law? The question is rhetorical, of course. The reason should be obvious. The human heart, as Calvin put it, is an “idol factory.” And, as Charles Simeon wrote, “The human mind is very fond of fetters, and is apt to forge them for itself.” Sin makes fools of us all!
Pauls Fear
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain (Gal 4:11). True gospel preachers are men who labor in the work of the gospel for the souls of men and the glory of God. They labor in the study of the Scriptures (1Ti 4:12-15) and in prayer, under the burden of the Lord.
Paul knew that the servant of God never labors in vain (Isa 49:5; 2Co 2:14-16). He is speaking here with reference to those who were following the Judaizers back to Moses. If they persisted in mixing legal ceremonies and human works with the grace of God and the work of Christ to make Gods grace and Christs redemptive work effectual, they would prove that for them his labor had been in vain. Any such mixture is a frustration of grace and damning (Gal 2:21; Gal 5:1-4).
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all (Gal 4:12). Here Paul calls upon the Galatian believers and us, in love and tenderness, to turn from their backsliding ways and return to the worship and service of the Savior. He says, I want you to be like me, free from the bondage of the law. Reckon yourselves to be dead to the law, which has been fulfilled by Christ. Count these things as loss and rubbish for Christ (Php 3:7-11).
I am as ye are. He became as they (Gentiles) were with respect to things spiritual. We are both alike in Christ: chosen in him, redeemed in him, perfected in him and free in him. Ye have not injured me at all. They had not injured Paul by their behavior, but only themselves. His feelings for them had not changed. Rather, their feelings toward him had changed (Gal 4:16). Paul wanted them to cling to Christ alone, as he did (Gal 6:14). He would have us renounce all personal righteousness for Christ, that we might be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
Multitudes forsake Christ and the gospel of Gods free grace in him, while claiming to uphold and defend it. They even do so without knowing it. They introduce works (self-salvation) into their gospel and make it another gospel, but are thoroughly convinced that their new works gospel is the gospel of God. These Gentile believers at Galatia, I am sure, did not think they had fundamentally shifted the foundation of their faith. They did not think they were returning to their former bondage. They did not imagine that they were abandoning the faith they had embraced, when by their baptism they professed faith in Christ. They would have vigorously denied that they had in any sense turned their backs on the knowledge of God. They did not see that their embracing Jewish ceremonies was nothing but idolatry and the same thing as embracing the human traditions and barbaric religious rituals of their idolatrous ancestors. They never dreamed that their law observance was a repudiation of the gospel. They thought they would be more holy, more spiritual, stronger Christians by keeping the law. Paul had to tell them what a catastrophic mistake they were making, how immense the error was; and he had to do so with such blunt force that they could not misunderstand him. They would never have imagined it otherwise.
The Scriptures teach us that vast multitudes of people will be surprised on the Day of Judgment to discover that their religion, with all their religious works and ceremonies, will be as a mill stone around their necks to drag them forever down to hell (Mat 7:21-23). Let us not be numbered among them (Rom 4:16; Rom 11:6; Col 2:6; Col 2:8; Col 2:16-23).
Nothing, either great or small;
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago!
When He, from His lofty throne,
Stooped to do and die,
Everything was fully done;
Hearken to His cry –
It is finished! Yes indeed,
Finished every jot.
Sinner, this is all you need.
Tell me, Is it not?
Weary, working, plodding one,
Why toil you so?
Cease your doing, all was done
Long, long ago!
Till to Jesus work you cling
By a simple faith,
Doing is a deadly thing.
Doing ends in death!
Cast your deadly doing down,
Down at Jesus feet.
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete!
James Procter
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
when: Exo 5:2, Jer 10:25, Joh 1:10, Act 17:23, Act 17:30, Rom 1:28, 1Co 1:21, Eph 2:11, Eph 2:12, Eph 4:18, 1Th 4:5, 2Th 1:8, 1Jo 3:1
ye did: Jos 24:2, Jos 24:15, Psa 115:4-8, Psa 135:15-18, Isa 44:9-20, Jer 10:3-16, Act 14:12, Act 17:29, Rom 1:23, 1Co 8:4, 1Co 10:19, 1Co 10:20, 1Co 12:2, 1Th 1:9, 1Pe 4:3
Reciprocal: Gen 35:2 – strange Jdg 2:10 – knew not 1Ki 18:29 – voice 2Ch 13:9 – no gods Psa 100:3 – Know Isa 19:21 – Lord shall Isa 45:4 – though Jer 5:7 – no gods Jer 16:20 – General Joh 17:25 – the world Act 19:26 – that they 1Co 8:5 – that 2Co 11:29 – and I burn
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 4:8. , -Howbeit at that time indeed, not knowing God. The introduces the statement of their condition, and throws it into striking contrast with the conclusion arrived at in the preceding verse. Sons you are now, but the time was when it was different with you. In the adverb the allusion is not formally to Gal 4:3 (Winer), but generally to their previous state-to the in . It does not signify vaguely , as Koppe and Flatt take it, and the stress is on the -indeed, truly. The , as Meyer remarks, forms one conceptus-ignorantes. Winer, 55, 5; Gayler, p. 287. This ignorance of God was a characterizing fact-no mere opinion of the writer. 1Th 4:5; 2Th 1:8. See under Eph 2:12 -.
-ye were in bondage to them which by nature are not gods, or, to gods which by nature are not. The former negative is historic-; but this is subjective-. The order of the words in the Received Text is , which is found in D3, F, G, K, L, some minuscules, and in Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the Philoxenian Syriac. The other arrangement is found in A, B, C, D & sup1, 3;, E, , and in the Vulgate, Gothic, Coptic, etc. The last order, which is also best substantiated, is the more emphatic-it denies them in the apostle’s estimation to be gods in any sense; whereas the other order would say less strongly that they were gods-not so indeed by nature, but converted against their nature into gods by human superstition. By the use of the apostle gives in his own judgment a denial of the divinity of those objects of worship (Winer, 55, 5), 1Co 8:4-6, called by him in 1Co 10:20. The dative is that of characterization (Madvig, 40), and means by nature, or essentially, in opposition to what is accidental or derived from circumstance. See under Eph 2:3. The aorist refers simply to the past period of their ignorance. During this period, and confined to that period over and gone, they were servants (Khner, 401)-in slavery to gods which in no sense were gods, and had no real right to be so named. Idolatry characterized them. Gods and lords many were worshipped and served among them in their state of ignorance, or because of it, as the participle may have a quasi-causal sense. The Galatians probably inherited the abominable idolatries of their Gallic ancestors. Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus.-Caesar, de Bello Gall. 6.16. Diodorus speaks of the Galatian , which led them to lavish gold on their gods and temples, though they were fond of money to excess,5:27. The native Phrygian idolatry may have been partially adopted on the Gallic occupation of the province-the worship of Cybele; and there may have been combined with it some elements of Hellenic superstition. Wernsdorff, De Republica Galat. 32; Pausanias, Descrips. Graec. 7.17, 10, vol. ii. p. 584, ed. Schubart et Walz. The apostle does not enter into particulars, as there may have been variations among the three leading tribes,-the general fact suffices for his purpose. These words cannot be addressed to Jewish believers, as Theodoret seems to imagine. The scholiast quoted in Usteri says that the keeping of times marked by sun and moon is to be in slavery to those heavenly bodies-a species of idolatry.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Verse 8. Howbeit is an old word, coming from ALLA, which has been translated by “but” 572 times. It has also been rendered “notwithstanding” 10 times. It is used in this verse to introduce a statement about the past conduct of the Galatians, most of whom were Gentiles who had been worshipers of idols. But that was before they had been brought to know the true God, which was done through the preaching of the Gospel. By nature were no gods. Most of the objects of worship among the idolaters were articles of their own formation, or were the creatures of their imagina tion. Even such things as planets and animals, the works in creation, were not made into intelligent beings by nature, and hence were no gads in the true sense of the term, since a god is expected to have intelligence enough to plan and power to execute the plan, and thus direct human beings in their religious and moral conduct.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 4:8. Here the Apostle evidently addresses Gentile Christians. But some may have been before their conversion proselytes to Judaism.
But formerly (before your conversion, comp. Gal 4:7) when ye knew not God. A description of the heathen state, which, compared with the knowledge of the only true and living God through revelation, was dark ignorance. Indefinite Knowledge is definite ignorance. Comp. 1Th 4:5; 2Th 1:8; Eph 2:12. Paul admits, however, Rom 1:21, that the heathen have or might have an inferior order of knowledge from the light of nature (Rom 1:21) and a moral sense of right and wrong (Rom 2:14-16), and are therefore without excuse.
Ye were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. This reading which connects the negative (not) with gods, and not with nature, is best supported. It means that the heathen idols are not pods, but something else, namely, demons or evil spirits. Comp. 1Co 10:20 : the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Accordingly the heathen divinities had a real existence, and idolatry was the religion of the devil and his army of fallen angels or evil spirits. Comp. also Deu 32:17; Psa 106:37. If the negation is put before nature: to those who are gods not by nature, we must supply: but only in repute (comp. 1Co 8:5 : though there be that are called gods). In this case the Apostle would deny the existence of the heathen gods altogether and hold them to be mere creatures of fancy (or personifications of the powers of nature).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle having proved sufficiently the believing Christians freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law; next endeavours to convince the Galatians how absurd and unreasonable it was for them voluntarily to put themselves under the obligation and obedience of it, and to look upon it as necessary to their justification and salvation: Now in the verses before us he tells them, that when they were Gentiles they were the worst of slaves, serving them that were no gods at all; whereas the Jews served the true God, though in a servile manner: These Galatians, being Heathens before conversion, served false Gods, and so were in a bondage much worse than that of the Jews. The apostle therefore justly blames them, that they being naturally Gentiles, and never under the ceremonial law, should now desire and choose to enter into that bondage: which was apparently to go backward in religion, or to return to those principles which they had already over-past.
Thence learn, that it is possible for a professing people to advance very far in the way of Christianity, and yet make a foul retreat afterwards in a course of defection and apostacy: After we have known God, that is acknowledged the living and true God, and been acknowledged by him, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements?
Here note, how contemptuously, or at least disesteemingly, our apostle speaks of the legal rites of the ceremonial law: He calls them elements or rudiments, because they were God’s first instructions given to his church for his worship, to which he intended afterwards a more perfect way of worship: Next he calls them weak elements, because the law made nothing perfect, and the observance of it was impotent and unavailable to a sinner’s justification before God: And lastly, he calls them beggarly elements, in comparison with that more rational and spiritual way of worship under the gospel.
Whence we may learn, that holy zeal will teach a saint to speak with a sort of contempt of any thing that encroaches upon the honour due to Christ, or any of his offices. True, the Levitical ceremonies were appointed by God himself as a part of divine worship leading to Christ, and as such to be religiously observed; but when the false apostles did urge the observation of them under the gospel, as a part of necessary commanded worship, and as a part of the Galatians righteousness before God, St. Paul is bold then to give them the name of weak and beggarly elements.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Gal 4:8-11. Howbeit , but, or however, that ye Gentiles may not foolishly reject, neglect, or forfeit your privileges, as the sons of God, you ought to remember what your condition was while under the elements of the world, and compare it with your present happy state: that then, when ye knew not the one living and true God, ye did service Performed many degrading, burdensome, irrational, and abominable acts of worship and service, unto them which by nature are no gods This is a true description of the idols worshipped by the heathen, for either they had no existence, being mere creatures of the imagination; or, if any of them existed, they were dead men, or evil spirits, or the luminaries of the heavens, [or other creatures of God, as most of the idols of Egypt were,] deified by human folly: and being destitute of divine perfections, they were utterly incapable of bestowing any blessing whatever on their worshippers. But now, after ye have known the only true God And his mind and will; or rather are known of God Are acknowledged, approved, and accepted, as his children; how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements Weak, utterly unable to purge your conscience from guilt, and to inspire you with filial confidence in God, or to change your nature, transform you into his likeness, and to enable you to do and suffer his will: beggarly, or poor; that is, incapable of enriching your souls with such wisdom, holiness, and happiness, as ye are heirs to, or to give you a hope of a blessed immortality after death; whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Though of another kind: now to these elements, as before to those idols; changing indeed the form and object of your ceremonies, but retaining many of the same low, perplexing, and unprofitable observances. Ye observe days Jewish sabbaths; and months New moons; and times As that of the passover, pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles; and years Annual solemnities. The word does not here mean sabbatic years: these were not to be observed out of the land of Canaan. This was addressed to such of the Galatians as had embraced Judaism. Some think this verse should be read interrogatively, Do ye observe? &c, because it seems to intimate a hope that it might be otherwise. As a question, it likewise expresses the apostles surprise that the Galatians observed these days. I am afraid of you See on 2Co 11:2-3; lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain As will be the case if you continue the use of these ceremonies and think to be justified by them together with Christ, Gal 5:2.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Gal 4:8-11. The state of the Galatians, while heathen, was similar but worse. They had not been heirs in a state of temporary slavery, but frankly slaves to the mere element-spirits, those undivine gods they worshipped. If they now Judaize, they return to the same slavery. To make the imperfect OT Law an ultimate religious authority is to prefer nature-worship to Christ. Subordinate spirits, however over-ruled by God, instituted the Law. Here Paul comes nearer his great Gnostic follower Marcion than anywhere else; but, while Marcion hated the OT, Paul rejects only the Law, and rejects it only if it becomes a rival to the Gospel. His thought is delicately balanced on a knife-edge. In Rom., emphasis on the ceremonial (not part but aspect of the) Law disappears; it is viewed on its moral side as the law of God. In a later epistle, Col., the ceremonial again predominates.
Gal 4:9. rather to be known of God: note the feeling of mystery, and cf. 1Co 8:1 ff.
Gal 4:11. I am afraid: he does not despair of winning back his readers.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 8
The apostle here appears to address the Gentile portion of the Galatian churches.–Ye did service unto, ye were in bondage unto.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
SECTION 16. THEN TURN NOT BACK TO THINGS LEFT BEHIND.
CH. 4:8-11.
Nevertheless at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. But now, having come to know God, or rather having become known by God, how are ye turning again to the weak and poor rudiments to which, beginning anew, ye wish to be again in bondage? Days ye observe, and months, and seasons, and years. I fear you, lest in any way I have in vain laboured for you.
Practical and personal application to the Galatian Christians, closing the argument introduced in Gal 3:1.
Gal 4:8-9. Startling and sad contrast to Gal 4:7. The contrast is to be sought, not in the bygone detail ye were servants, but in turning back again to the rudiments, which is the chief matter of 16 and indeed (Gal 1:6; Gal 4:21; Gal 5:4) of the whole Epistle, and which was actually going on as Paul wrote, in almost tragic contrast to Gal 4:7. Paul might have said nevertheless ye are turning back: but, as his manner (e.g. Rom 6:17; Rom 8:15) was, he preludes his chief point by other matter which throws it into stronger relief. Then, after the interval thus caused, instead of an assertion, he puts in Gal 4:9 his chief point in the form of an astonished question.
Not knowing God: 1Th 4:5; Joh 17:25; contrast Rom 1:21. In each case the extent of the knowledge is determined by the context. The personal God who revealed Himself to Israel (Psa 76:1) was not known, in the same sense, to the heathen. Yet they derived from Nature such knowledge of Him as should have prompted further search, and actually left them without excuse. On the other hand, only they who believe the Gospel, and in proportion to their faith, know God so as to rest and rejoice in Him. Cp. Joh 17:3. The heathens scantier opportunities of knowing God, as compared with the Jews, were a palliation of their service of idols: but this palliation at that time aggravates by its absence now the guilt of turning back to the old rudiments of heathenism.
Were-in-bondage or were-servants: same word in Gal 4:25; Gal 5:13; Rom 6:6; Rom 7:6; Rom 7:25; Eph 6:7. It involves the two ideas of doing work (cp. Gal 5:13) for others and of being (cp. Gal 4:25) under others control. By performing the ritual of idolatry, the heathen acknowledged themselves to be servants under the control of their supposed deities. And whether idols be looked upon as mere images or as demons, idolatry is service and bondage to objects which by nature, i.e. by their mode of existence, are no gods. The word nature (see under Rom 2:14) suggests the essential and infinite difference between God and the no-gods.
Gal 4:9. But now; a marked feature of Pauls phraseology and thought, the contrast of past and present; see under Rom 6:22.
Having-come-to-know God: as implied in Gal 4:6.
Known by God: see under 1Co 8:3. Paul remembers that the change has its ultimate source, not in the mind of man as though by his intelligence he had found out God, but in the mind of God who in mercy has looked upon man. Therefore, leaving out of sight for a moment Gods eternal knowledge of all men, which lay at that time outside his readers thought, Paul speaks here as though they had lately come within the embrace of this divine knowledge. They can now say, as once they never said, God knows me.
How: as in Gal 2:14 : by what process is so remarkable a retrogression taking place?
Are turning: the apostacy now going on, and therefore not yet complete. See under Gal 1:6. Same word in 2Co 3:16; 1Th 1:9 : often used of turning to God, here the opposite.
Again; recalls Gal 4:3.
Weak: unable to achieve results.
Poor: unable to enrich.
Again again: emphatic reference to Gal 4:3, reminding us that to go to the Law for salvation was to go again to something already tried and found unable to save.
Beginning-anew: as though recommencing the severe discipline of their spiritual childhood.
To-be-in-bondage: as in Gal 4:8. Cp. Gal 5:1. Since to seek salvation from law is essentially bondage, (for it is a vain effort to free ourselves from a terrible curse,) all desire for the Law as a means of salvation is practically a wish to be again in bondage to it. Cp. Act 15:10. And this practical result of the present conduct of the Galatian Christians reveals its folly. They deliberately prefer now a path already tried, for which the only excuse at that time was their then ignorance of God.
Paul assumes that both himself (Gal 4:3) and his Gentile readers (Gal 4:8-9) were formerly under the same rudiments, and in bondage to them. This implies, not only that Judaism was powerless to save and to enrich, but that heathenism, as well as Judaism, was in some sense and measure a preparation for the Gospel. Heathen sages taught the great principles of right and wrong, and that Gods favour was to be obtained only by doing right: and even the rites of heathenism, deeply corrupt as many of them were, contained elements expressive of mans felt need of salvation and of God. In other words, the Old Covenant did but reveal, with greater distinctness and depth and certainty, truths already revealed, in Nature and in the law written on the heart, to the nations around; and added to these moral truths a prophecy of future salvation of which only the faintest outline was known to the heathen world. Consequently, to seek salvation by the Mosaic Covenant of works, was to go back, ignoring the noblest element in the earlier revelation, e.g. Gen 15:6; Hab 2:4; Jer 31:31 ff; Eze 36:25 ff, to that which in a lower degree heathenism had in common with Judaism, to that which both Jews and Gentiles had found unable to save them. That the Law is here called weak and poor. (cp. Rom 8:3) does not deny its infinite worth as a means (Gal 3:24) of leading men to Christ. Cp. Rom 7:12. It is good as a stepping stone to the Gospel; but is utterly ruinous when chosen as a means of salvation in preference to the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel.
This assumption that to go to the Mosaic Law for salvation was a return to the moral powerlessness and poverty of heathenism, although perfectly true and embodying a principle of immense importance, helps to explain the intense hatred of the Jews to a teacher of Jewish race who used such words.
Gal 4:10. Simple statement of fact. It explains and justifies the charge involved in the question of Gal 4:9.
Days: cp. Rom 14:5 : the weekly Sabbath; but including probably the great days (Joh 7:37; Joh 19:31) of the yearly festivals. Cp. Col 2:16; where, in the inverse order of frequency, we have the weekly sabbath indisputably, the beginnings of months, and the yearly feasts. It is thrown conspicuously forward to the beginning of Gal 4:10, suggesting that these sacred days were a chief feature of the Jewish ritual adopted by the Galatian Christians.
Observe: attend to them with scrupulous care. Same word in Josephus, Antiq. bk. iii. 5. 5, to observe the seventh days; in reference to the fourth commandment.
Months: probably the new moons, which are constantly mentioned with the weekly Sabbath; Num 28:11; Isa 1:13; Hos 2:11; 1Ch 23:31, also Num 10:10; Psa 81:3. Philo speaks (vol. ii. 286) of the seventh month as specially honoured by containing the greatest of feasts. But he says this chiefly to glorify the number seven. Moreover, this long festival is included in the seasons: and the new moons, a conspicuous feature of Jewish ritual, are unmentioned unless referred to as months. That only the beginnings of the months, but the whole of the days and seasons, were sacred, is an unimportant difference.
Seasons: same word in Lev 23:4, introducing regulations for the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of Tabernacles. And to these feasts occupying several days, Paul probably refers here.
Years: the seventh Sabbatic year. The plural number, making the reference general, forbids us to infer that Paul wrote during a sacred year. He merely says that, to observe the year when it came round, was part of his readers Judaizing programme.
Gal 4:11. Result, in Pauls heart, of the conduct described in Gal 4:10. His own converts were objects filling him with fear. For, their present conduct threatened to render fruitless his toil for them and thus to inflict upon him, eager for success, i.e. for their salvation, a severe blow.
He was therefore in some sense at their mercy. This fear reveals their tremendous danger and Pauls deep interest in them.
In-any-way: as in Gal 4:2; 1Th 3:5. He thinks of the variety of ways in which his labours may become fruitless. The emphatic word is in-vain: cp. Gal 3:4. For the result is still contingent; whereas Pauls labours are already matter of fact, and therefore beyond reach of fear. [This explains sufficiently the perfect indicative, without supposing that Paul assumes that his fear is already realised.]
Gal 4:10 is Pauls first plain statement of the nature of the incipient apostacy from which in this Epistle he seeks to recall his readers. Observance of the Jewish festivals and even of the Jewish Sabbath, though all these were ordained by God, is described as a turning back to the powerless rudiments of spiritual education and as a desire to return to bondage, and is said to inspire in Paul fear lest his labours for them be in vain. This reveals the vast issues at stake in this observance, and its tremendous significance. Evidently it implied that the Law of Moses was still binding as a condition, and therefore the only means of obtaining, the blessings of the New Covenant. This inference from the observance of Jewish ritual is plainly stated in Gal 5:3. Cp. Act 15:1; Act 15:5. It explains the question in Gal 3:2, and the argument following; and is the only conceivable explanation of them.
This logical inference from these Jewish practices would produce various results in various persons. Since the Law contains moral precepts involving broad principles which reach to the inmost sources of human action, and thus reveals a morality far beyond reach of the best men who come to the Law for salvation, the result to earnest seekers would be a sense of condemnation deepening into despair. Of this, Paul had himself been an example: cp. Rom 7:24. Others would direct and limit their attention to those parts of the Law which seemed easy of fulfilment, especially the details of its ritual, e.g. observance of sacred days. And on such observance they would rely for the favour of God, silencing the voice of conscience by increased punctiliousness in small details. Of this false reliance a lowered moral tone is an inevitable result. In each case the result would be subversive of the Gospel and of Christianity. Yet these sacred days were ordained by God, in order to prepare a way, both as means of spiritual education and by their felt inability to save, for the salvation revealed by Christ. To retrace our steps in the path of life, is the way to destruction.
In Act 21:24 we find Paul himself doing that which in the Galatian Christians caused him so much fear. See Diss. i. 5. As a born Jew, to conciliate Jews and to avoid appearance of denying the divine origin of the Mosaic Law, Paul himself obeyed its requirements. But he taught strenuously that such observance was not needful for salvation, or in any way binding on Gentile converts. Thus Pauls conduct and teaching were consistent, although easily misunderstood and misrepresented.
REVIEW of 9-16, the central argument of the Epistle.
Some men in Galatia had taught that Christians are bound to be circumcised and to keep Jewish sacred seasons. Without discussing these details, Paul goes at once to a broad and erroneous principle underlying them, viz. that observance of the Law is still a condition of the favour of God. In disproof of this, he appeals to his readers earlier Christian life which was derived, as memory testifies, not from obedience to law but from belief of a preached word. He asks whether a life begun by reception of the Spirit is to be perfected by ordinances pertaining to mere bodily life.
With his readers experience agrees the story of Abraham, who obtained by faith blessings for himself and promises for all nations. These promises are fulfilled in those who believe the Gospel, and in them only. For, on all who come to it for salvation the Law pronounces a curse. From this curse Christ bought us off, by Himself undergoing it, that by faith we might obtain the blessings promised to Abraham. if the Law be a condition of salvation, God has nullified His promises to Abraham by adding to them a later and impossible condition; which even human morality forbids. Paul notices incidentally that the heirs of the promises are uniformly designated by a word in the singular number, in close harmony with the fulfilment of these promises in Christ. The real purpose of the Law was to create in man consciousness of helpless bondage under the power of sin, in order to compel him to seek salvation by faith in Christ. The days of bondage are now past. By union with Christ we are sons of God, a relation in which all human distinctions fade; and heirs of Abrahams promises. The former days were the bondage of childhood: but now that the set time has come we are adopted sons of God; and, in token of this, God has put in our hearts the filial cry of His Firstborn Son. In view of all this, Paul asks why his readers wish to begin over again the discipline and bondage of their earlier days, and expresses a fear lest they will rob him of the fruits of his toil on their behalf.
THE weekly SABBATH is, as we have seen, included, and probably referred to specially, in the evidently sad statement of Gal 4:10. This agrees with Col 2:16, where the Sabbath, which must be chiefly the weekly rest, is joined to feasts and new moons and distinctions of food as a matter in which sentence must not be pronounced upon Christians; and with Rom 14:5, where the superiority of one day above another is left an open question. The relation therefore of the Jewish Sabbath to Christianity demands our attention.
The word Sabbath is an English form of a Hebrew word denoting always a sacred rest. The corresponding verb denotes sometimes simply to cease or rest, as in Gen 8:22; Jos 5:12; Jer 31:36; Pro 22:10; Job 32:1; Neh 6:3; and sometimes to keep a sacred rest, as in Gen 2:2 and He kept Sabbath on the seventh day from all His work which He did, Exo 16:30; Exo 23:12; Exo 34:21; Lev 23:32; Lev 25:2.
Although there are several festal days in which servile work was forbidden, e.g. Lev 23:7 f, and in a few places, e.g. Lev 23:11; Lev 23:15, these seem to be called Sabbaths or are indisputably called (so Lev 23:24) by the cognate name Shabbathon, yet the weekly Sabbath and the Day of Atonement are raised above all other days as (Lev 23:3; Lev 23:31 f) a cessation from all work and are designated by a special superlative name Sabbath of Sabbath-keeping or Rest of Resting, in A.V. Sabbath of Rest. When not otherwise defined, the word Sabbath is a sufficient and frequent designation of the weekly rest. Thus the usage of words gives to the seventh day a unique place of honour among the many sacred days of the Law of Moses.
Amid many other ordinances, the weekly Sabbath is very conspicuous as being the special sign of the Mosaic Covenant: Exo 31:12-17; cp. Eze 20:12. It thus takes in some sense the place of circumcision (Gen 17:10-14) in the covenant with Abraham. The frequent and regular recurrence of the weekly rest made it a very appropriate test and visible expression of loyalty to the covenant with God.
Still further is the weekly Sabbath raised above all other ritual prescriptions by its place in the Decalogue, among commandments valid every one for all time and all men; and by being based in the Decalogue and in Gen 2:3; Exo 31:17 upon Gods work in creation. Of the close relation of the Sabbath to moral precepts, Isa 56:1-6 affords remarkable proof.
That the weekly rest was ordained before Moses, is not proved by Gen 2:3 : for even after a lapse of time an institution may have been ordained to commemorate a bygone event. Against this, the consecutive order of Genesis 2 cannot be appealed to for after the ordinance of the Sabbath in Gen 2:3 we have in Gen 2:7 the creation of man. Nor is it disproved by Eze 20:12 : for an already existing institution might at the Exodus have been made by God a sign of the new covenant then given to Israel. That the princes of Israel in the wilderness (Exo 16:22) did not understand the double supply of manna, suggests perhaps that the Sabbath was not then known to them. On the other hand, Gen 8:10; Gen 8:12; Gen 29:27 suggest that a period of seven days was already used as a division of time: and, although this does not imply a weekly day of sacred rest, the division of time into weeks is much more easy to understand if the weeks were separated by a sacred day. The word remember in Exo 20:8, if it is anything more than an emphatic form of the parallel phrase keep the Sabbath day in Deu 4:12, refers doubtless to the institution of the Sabbath in Exo 16:29-30. Certainly it is no proof or suggestion that the Sabbath was ordained earlier than the departure from Egypt. Indeed, taken together, the above casual and uncertain notes have little weight as evidence either that the Sabbath was not, or was, ordained earlier than the Exodus. But the double supply of manna on the sixth day with no manna on the seventh, and the solemn ordinance of the Sabbath in Exo 16:25-30 before the giving of the Decalogue, are additional marks of honour to the weekly Day of Rest.
The week itself was unknown to the early Greeks and Romans, and apparently to the heathen world generally. But that something like it was known to the Babylonians and Assyrians, is proved by a Babylonian calendar for a sacred month written in the Assyrian language, in which amid sacrifices for other days, the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days have a uniform description as days unlawful to work on, and the king is forbidden to eat his ordinary food or change his dress or do his ordinary royal duties on them. See Smiths Chaldaean Account of Genesis p. 89; Records of the Past, vol. vii. p. 159; Schrader, Keilinschriften und A.T. 2nd ed. p. 18. Since these were days of a lunar month, which contains 29 days, they would not coincide with the Jewish Sabbath, which is each seventh day all the year round independently of the moon. But the similarity is worthy of notice. An Assyrian form of the word Sabbath has been found; (see Records of the Past, vol. vii. p. 157;) and is explained as day of rest of heart. But it is not used in the calendar mentioned above other Babylonian inscriptions reveal the sacredness of the number seven.
A seven-fold division of time is also mentioned in the Indian Vedas. So Rig-veda i. 50, in a hymn to the Sun-god: Clear-sighted god of day, thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car. With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot, onward thou dost advance. Also Atharva-veda xix. 53, in a hymn to Time: Time, like a brilliant steed with seven rays Time, like a seven-wheeled, seven-naved car, moves on. But I learn from a reliable authority that these are the only references to a seven-fold division of time in Indian literature earlier than our era; and that there is no reference there to a weekly rest. But in later days the week became known in India.
Similar scanty references are found in the literature of China.
Dion Cassius (Roman History bk. 37. 16-18) states that in his day the division of time into weeks was universal, though not of early date among the Greeks and Romans, and that they received it from the Egyptians. But we have not, so far as I know, any reliable traces of a weekly day of rest among the Egyptians. And indeed the evidence of a weekly division of time earlier than the Christian era and outside Israel is at present very scanty and somewhat uncertain.
The early Christian writers assume that the Sabbath did not exist before Moses. So Justin (Dialogue with Trypho ch. 19) says in argument with a Jew, referring to Adam, Abel, Enoch, and Melchizedec: All these were just men and righteous in the sight of God without even keeping the Sabbath. And Irenus in his work Against Heresies (bk. iv. 16. 2) writes Without circumcision and without observance of the Sabbath Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Probably these quotations represent the opinion of the Apostolic Church. But the distance of time and absence of independent sources of information deprive this opinion of any critical value as evidence of the date of the first institution of the weekly rest.
The above casual references leave us unable to determine with confidence whether the Sabbath was earlier than the Mosaic Covenant. And the matter is unimportant. For, that the Jewish Sabbath rested on a basis broader than the Mosaic Covenant, is proved by its connection with Gods work at the Creation.
The importance of the Sabbath in the Old Covenant is attested by Jer 17:21-27; Eze 20:12; Neh 10:31; Neh 13:15-22. Its worth in the eyes of the more pious of the later Jews is seen in 1 Macc. i. 39; ii. 34, 38, 41.
Yet that which to Israel of the Old Covenant was an obligatory mark of loyalty to God, was, in the Gentile Christians of Galatia, called by Paul a return to spiritual bondage. Indeed the prominent position in Gal 4:10 of the word days suggests that their observance of the weekly Sabbath was a chief mark of their apostacy. And this, Pauls foregoing argument enables us to understand. For it implies that the Galatian Christians kept the Jewish Sabbath as an essential condition of salvation. But this was an acknowledgment that the Mosaic Law is still binding as a condition of the favour of God. For the entire Law, including ritual and moral commands, was given by the same authority. Now Paul has proved that the Law pronounces a universal curse, and excludes from the blessings promised to Abraham all those under its domain. Consequently, the continued validity of the Law would close to all men the way of salvation. And this was involved in the observance by the Galatians of the Jewish Sabbath. This observance was therefore utterly subversive of the Gospel proclaimed by Christ. Hence Pauls fear lest his labours in Galatia be in vain.
All this implies that, like the distinction of food, (Mar 7:15; Mar 7:18; Act 10:15,) so marked a feature of the Mosaic Covenant, also the command to keep sacred the seventh day was in some sense annulled by Christ, and that the great principle of Rom 6:14; 1Co 9:20, that we are not under law but under grace, includes the Sabbath Law. This inference compels us to consider now the relation of the Lords day to the Jewish Sabbath.
In marked contrast to the comparative disregard of the day so highly honoured in the Old Covenant, we find in the New Testament special honour paid to another day. On the day following the Jewish Sabbath Christ rose from the dead; and on the evening of the same day (Joh 20:19) appeared to the assembled disciples. On the same day of the next week He appeared to them again. And on the same day six weeks later He founded His Church by pouring upon the assembled disciples the Holy Spirit. The infinite importance of these events gives to the first day of the week a glory never conferred on the seventh day.
Accordingly we find in Act 20:7 a Christian meeting held on the first day of the week; and in 1Co 16:2 Paul prescribes it as the day for laying by money for a charitable purpose. In Rev 1:10, we read of the Lords Day, which is honoured by a special revelation to John. And the distinction already given to the first day of the week makes us quite certain that this was the Lords Day.
All this is confirmed by early Christian writers. The lately discovered Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, written probably early in the second century, says in ch. 14: Each Lords Day come together and break bread and give thanks, i.e. celebrate the Eucharist. So the Epistle of Barnabas, probably a few years later, ch. 15, where after a long reference to the Sabbath we read: For which cause also we keep the eighth day for gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead. Justin writes in the middle of the century, First Apology ch. 67: On what is called Sunday there is a coming together to one place of all who dwell in town or country, and the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read; and says that this is followed by exhortation and the Lords Supper, adding: On Sunday we all make our common gathering since it is the first day in which God changed darkness and crude matter and made the world: and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. A succession of later writers removes all doubt that the first day of the week was called the Lords Day, and was a special day of worship in the early Church.
We have already seen that unique honour to one day of the week was a marked feature of the Old Covenant; and that, by its reference to the work of Creation and its place in that Decalogue, the Jewish Sabbath was placed on a basis broader than the Mosaic Law. We now find in the New Covenant still more conspicuous honour paid to one day of the week; but not to the same day. The change of day marks a transition from the Old Covenant to the New. And the honour paid in each covenant to one day in seven suggests that a common element underlies both, and that the Lords Day bears to the Jewish Sabbath a relation similar to that of the New Covenant to the Old. That this is actually the case, is, I think, fully proved by the following considerations.
We find by experience that the weekly day of rest is of incalculable and many-sided benefit. The gain to the body of regular intervals of rest from the monotonous toil of daily life can never be estimated. Still more valuable is the leisure thus obtained, amid the imperious demands of the present life, for contemplation of the eternal realities of the life to come. Moreover, the observance of this sacred rest in spite of these pressing cares is an acknowledgment, in view of many who through forgetfulness of God are slaves of the world around, of the greater importance of the world above us. Thus, like the Lords Supper, the Lords Day gives visible form to the service of God. Moreover, the observance by all Christians of the same day of rest renders united worship possible; and makes the outward aspect of society a recognition of God. For these reasons, (and they might be multiplied indefinitely and they have much more force than appears on the surface,) were there no divine obligation it would be expedient for our highest interests to keep a frequent and regularly recurring day of rest, and that all Christians should observe the same day. This reveals the gain actually derived from the prevalent belief, whatever be its grounds, that the day of rest was ordained by God. Indeed, it is not easy to conceive how otherwise all Christians would agree to keep the same day. Consequently, either this belief is correct or an error has been to the world a manifold and incalculable benefit. This benefit is an element of good in the Jewish Sabbath suitable to all nations and all ages.
These spiritual gains go a long way to prove, or rather strongly confirm our other abundant proof of, the divine origin of the Mosaic Covenant. Certainly, the teacher who gave to his nation and institution so rich in blessing for all mankind was indeed taught by God.
Admitting now the divine origin of the Jewish Sabbath, as we are compelled to do unless we reject the plain and repeated historical statements of the Old Testament, and observing the immense gain to all men of a weekly day of sacred rest, we are irresistibly driven to infer that the rest ordained at Sinai was designed for all mankind; or, in other words, that this gain is by divine purpose. While enjoying the benefits of the Lords Day, we feel that these benefits are Gods gift. And this wider purpose of Israels Day of Rest is the easiest explanation of its place in the Decalogue and of its reference there to the Creation of the World. Indeed we can well conceive that the great benefit it was designed to confer on Israel and on the world moved God to select the Sabbath, whether previously existing or not, as the special sign of the Mosaic Covenant. For, by thus selecting it, He gave it a sure place in the national life.
If the above inference and explanation be correct, by keeping the Lords Day we are doing the will of God and are receiving benefits designed by Him for us. To neglect it, would be to trample under foot a precious and divine gift. We therefore keep it, not as a condition or means of the favour of God or under fear of penalty, but with gratitude for so great a gift and desirous to obtain all the blessings it is designed to convey. And this desire will determine our mode of spending the Sacred Day.
In the above discussion we have left out of sight the symbolic significance which belongs to the Sabbath in common with the entire Mosaic ritual. This significance is embodied in the words holy and sanctify, which are everywhere given to every part of that ritual. God claimed from Israel for Himself one tribe out of twelve, one day in seven, and one-tenth of all produce, in order to assert His universal ownership. He now claims, in the New Covenant, that every man be His servant and priest, that all our possessions be consecrated to Him, and every day and hour be spent for Him. To us, therefore, in the highest conceivable sense every day is holy to the Lord. But this by no means lessens the benefit of separating, from the secular toil which forms so large a part of the work God has allotted to most of us, a portion of time for meditation and evangelical work. This separation of a part greatly aids us to spend our whole time for God.
We understand now the relation to Christianity of the Jewish Sabbath. Whenever instituted, it was commanded in the Law; and was made a sign, and a conspicuous feature, of the Old Covenant of works. Consequently, as commanded by God, it was binding on every Israelite under pain of Gods displeasure. And they who sought salvation by law sought it in part by strict observance of the Sabbath. This is the legal aspect of the Jewish Sabbath. Again, like the entire Mosiac ritual, the Sabbath was a symbol of the Christian life. In these two aspects, the legal and the symbolic, the Jewish Sabbath passed away; or rather has attained its goal in the fuller revelation of the New Covenant. Instead of one day sanctified for Jehovah, every day is now spent for Christ. The Law has led us to Christ. And the Voice which once condemned us for past disobedience, and made the favour of God impossible by reason of our powerlessness to obey in the future, has been silenced by the Voice from the Cross. In these two senses the Law, even the law of the Sabbath, is to us as completely a thing of the past as is the schooling of our childhood.
But underneath the legal and symbolic aspects of the Sabbath, which pertain only to the Old Covenant, lay an element of universal and abiding value, viz. the manifold benefit of the weekly rest. To secure this benefit for Israel, and through Israel for the world, God embodied the Sabbath in the Law and Ritual of the Old Covenant. And when the Old Covenant was superseded by the New, Christ secured for His Church the same advantages by paying special honour to the first day of the week. But, like everything in the Gospel, the Lords Day is not so much a law as a free gift of God. While keeping it we think, not of the penalty of disobedience, but of the great benefits received thereby in the kind providence of God: and we spend the day, not according to a written prescription, but in such way as seems to us most conducive to our spiritual growth. Thus the Lords Day is a Christian counterpart of the Jewish Sabbath; and differs from it only as the Gospel differs from the Law.
Similarly, as a visible embodiment of the truth that our salvation comes through the shed blood of the innocent, the Jewish sacrifices have in some sense a Christian counterpart in the Lords Supper. And the rite of Infant Baptism, which is not expressly enjoined in the New Testament, reproduces in the Christian Church, by recognising the relation of little ones to the God of their fathers, a part of the spiritual significance of circumcision.
We understand now Pauls indifference in Rom 14:5 whether we esteem one day above another, or all days equally. Seen in the full light of the Gospel, all days are equal: for all are spent for Christ. And the service we render Him in the common duties of daily life is as precious in His sight and as rich an outflow of Christian life as are the meditation and evangelical activity of the Lords Day. This is perfectly consistent with the consecration of one day a week for the latter, and the equal consecration of six days for the former, kind of service.
Nor is the absence from the New Testament of any express teaching about the relation of the Lords Day to the Jewish Sabbath and the Fourth Commandment difficult to understand. Any such teaching in the Epistle before us would have seriously blunted, by inevitable misinterpretation, Pauls resistance to the advocates of the Mosaic Law as still binding on Christians. Abundant proofs of this relation were stored in the sacred volume. The inference from these proofs was left to be observed, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in the later ages of the Church. And in the meantime, by Christ and by the apostolic Church an unique honour was paid to the first day of the week which marked it out unmistakably as the Day of Days.
In exact accord with the above exposition is the usage of early Christian writers. The first day of the week is constantly called the Lords Day, and spoken of as specially honoured and as the chosen day of Christian worship. But, so far as I know, not until the Council of Macon in A.D. 585 have we any hint of a transfer of the sacred rest from the seventh to the first day, or of obligation to keep the Lords Day on the ground of the Fourth Commandment. Very interesting is Augustines note on Psa 91:1, where he contrasts the Jews Sabbath, which he says they waste in bodily idleness, with the Christians inward rest, which he calls the Sabbath of the heart. The whole note makes us almost certain that Augustine did not look upon the Lords Day as a Christian counterpart of the Jewish Sabbath. Equally interesting is a treatise of doubtful authorship and date on The Sabbath and Circumcision attributed to Athanasius, in which, although the Lords Day is not called a Sabbath or placed in any relation to the Fourth Commandment, it is nevertheless shown to stand in close relation to the Jewish Sabbath. See also the much earlier quotation on p. 118 from the Epistle of Barnabas.
The first Christian Emperor, Constantine, decreed, in A.D. 321, that all judges and people residing in cities rest from work on Sunday, permitting only agriculture. He thus recognised publicly the Day of Rest as a Christian institution.
But neither imperial decrees nor command of the ancient Law of God nor tradition of the Early Church are needed by those who have experienced the great and various benefit of the rest and leisure of the Lords Day. The greatness of the benefit is to them abundant proof of the divine origin and authority of the Christian Day of Rest.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Week Eight: 4:8-20 Paul Reminds Them Of His Labor And Love For Them
At one point in our lives we were asked to pioneer a work. We were asked to take over a small Bible study and move it into a church. We moved cross country because we were called of the Lord to do so, and we have never regretted the time and labor involved. We know that all of it was God’s purpose and that we grew immensely from the experience as a family.
On the other hand there was the other side of our thinking that we had given the greatest effort that we could to the people involved and yet there was nothing that indicated any growth or learning whatsoever.
I worked full time (45 hours a week) while preparing and teaching five lessons/sermons a week. As we moved through time with the work, it was obvious that the people were there to take and nothing else. None of them would do anything when asked. We met in our home and they wouldn’t even come a little early to help me move the furniture out of our living room so that we could set up chairs.
There were times of great frustration on my part and I am sure on my wife’s as well. We continued on wondering if things would ever change.
We ultimately left because we could see there were some fundamental differences of philosophy between myself and the people. The group of pastors that had started the Bible study in the first places promised that they would take over the flock and find someone else to shepherd them.
We heard a few months later that the pastors had disbanded the church, resulting in a little frustration on our part remembering their promise to care for it. Many years later we found out that the pastors had met with the people and it was obvious to them that the people had little desire to do anything, and that they had no intention of trying to prosper the work – thus the decision to close.
My point, finally is that I really wondered at the labor that we had put into that work – whether it was worth it or not. We knew we were there for God and that it was God that we served, but we wondered if our labor had been in vain as it related to the people.
In this section we see Paul wondering at some of his work as well.
4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
What a backward, sneaky, backdoor way to call their former life idolatrous. They had been in bondage to their gods that were not gods.
I have always marveled at the concept that God knows He is one God among multitudes of gods and that He doesn’t really care. He even mentions it in the Old Testament.
He knows the reality of man having other Gods, yet he makes it quite clear that He is above all gods. Deu 10:17 “For the LORD your God [is] God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: ” Jos 22:22 “The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if [it be] in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,)”
The Old Testament is near clogged with references to gods, the gods that God’s people trusted, the gods that they served. Yet, He simply declares Himself to be what He is and trusts that some of His people will ultimately see and worship Him rather than his much lesser competitors.
He just ignores all the gods and does His Godly work as if the others didn’t exist – oh, whoops – they don’t exist that is what Paul is making clear in this verse 🙂 No matter how real they are to man, no matter how convinced we are that they exist, and no matter how much we think they do for us, they don’t exist so they can’t do for us, they can’t exist, and they aren’t real.
The Old Testament also declares other gods are not gods at all. 2Ki 19:18 “And have cast their gods into the fire: for they [were] no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.”
Also 1Ch 16:25 “For great [is] the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he also [is] to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the people [are] idols: but the LORD made the heavens.” 2Ch 2:5 “And the house which I build [is] great: for great [is] our God above all gods.” Psa 95:1 “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with Psa 3:1-8 For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods.” Psa 136:2 “O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy [endureth] for ever.” And there are many more if you take a look in a concordance.
Probably the Old Testament passage I like most relating to idols is the one where the people go get the limb from the tree, and cut some of it up for fire wood and then they make an idol of the left over. Isa 44:15 “Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth [it], and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth [it]; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. 16 He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth [himself], and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: 17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, [even] his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth [it], and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou [art] my god.”
Note that the god comes from the residue or the left over of the wood. Kind of like us isn’t it, giving what is left over of our time and wealth to God. You’d think if you were making a god you would go looking for some of the nicest and best of woods so that you could have a great god, but not so. You’d think we would give of the best that we have to our God, the God of creation, yet we often only give Him the leftovers, the drivel of our lives.
Psa 115:4-8 speaks to the gods of the gentiles. It is even worse than the above text in relation to idols and their effectiveness. 4 “Their idols [are] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; [so is] every one that trusteth in them.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
4:8 {4} Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
(4) He applies the former doctrine to the Galatians, with a special rebuke: for in comparison with them, the Jews might have pretended some excuse as men that were born and brought up in that service of the Law. But seeing that the Galatians were taken and called out of idolatry to Christian liberty, what pretence might they have to go back to those impotent and beggarly elements?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The appeal 4:8-11
Paul next reminded his readers of their former way of life, the transformation that their adoption into God’s family had wrought, and his concern that they were in danger of trading their future for a mess of pottage.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Before conversion Paul’s readers (mainly Gentiles but some Jews) were slaves to religious traditions that, in the case of Gentiles, included counterfeit gods. Now at liberty they were in danger of turning back to the same slavery. They might return to a system that was weak (with no power to justify or sanctify), worthless (providing no inheritance), and elementary.
"To recognize oneself to be the centre of divine attention [Gal 4:9 a] is one of the profounder aspects of Christian conversion." [Note: Guthrie, Galatians, p. 116.]
"For all the basic differences between Judaism and paganism, both involved subjection to the same elemental forces. This is an astonishing statement for a former Pharisee to make; yet Paul makes it-not as an exaggeration in the heat of argument but as the deliberate expression of a carefully thought out position.
"The stoicheia to which the Galatians had been in bondage were the counterfeit gods of Gal 4:8; the bondage to which they were now disposed to turn back was that of the law." [Note: Bruce, pp. 202-3.]
"The demonic forces of legalism, then, both Jewish and Gentile, can be called ’principalities and powers’ or ’elemental spirits of the world.’" [Note: G. B. Caird, Principalities and Powers, p. 51.]
However these elemental things probably refer to all things in which people place their trust apart from the living God. [Note: Fung, p. 191.] Both Jewish and Gentile converts had lived bound to worldly elemental forces until Christ released them. These forces include everything in which people place their trust apart from God: their gods to which they become slaves.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 17
THE RETURN TO BONDAGE.
Gal 4:8-11
“Sons of God, whom He made His heirs in Christ, how are you turning back to legal bondage!” Such is the appeal with which the Apostle follows up his argument. “Foolish Galatians,” we seem to hear him say again, “who has bewitched you into this?” They forget the call of the Divine grace; they turn away from the sight of Christ crucified; nay, they are renouncing their adoption into the family of God. Paul knew something of the fickleness of human nature; but he was not prepared for this. How can men who have tasted liberty prefer slavery, or full-grown sons desire to return to the “rudiments” of childhood? After knowing God as He is in Christ, is it possible that these Galatians have begun to dote on ceremonial, to make a religion of “times and seasons”; that they are becoming devotees of Jewish ritual? What can be more frivolous, more irrational than this? On such people Pauls labours seem to be thrown away. “You make me fear,” he says, “that I have toiled for you in vain.”
In this expostulation two principles emerge with especial prominence.
1. First, that knowledge of God, bringing spiritual freedom, lays upon us higher responsibilities. “Then indeed,” he says, “not knowing God, you were in bondage to false gods. Your heathen life was in a sense excusable. But now something very different is expected from you, since you have come to know God.”
We are reminded of the Apostles memorable words spoken at Athens: “The times of ignorance God overlooked”. {Act 17:1-34} “Ye say, We see,” said Jesus; “your sin remaineth”. {Joh 9:41} Increased light brings stricter judgment. If this was true of men who had merely heard the message of Christ, how much more of those who had proved its saving power. Ritualism was well enough for Pagans, or even for Jews before Christs coming and the outpouring of His Spirit-but for Christians! For those into whose hearts God had breathed the Spirit of His Son, who had learned to “worship God in the Spirit and to have no confidence in the flesh”-for Pauls Galatians to yield to the legalist “persuasion” was a fatal relapse. In principle, and in its probable issue, this course was a reverting toward their old heathenism.
The Apostle again recalls them, as he does so often his children in Christ, to the time of their conversion. They had been, he reminds them, idolaters; ignorant of the true God, they were “enslaved to things that by nature are no gods.” Two definitions Paul has given of idolatry: “There is no idol in the world”; and again, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God”. {1Co 8:4; 1Co 10:20} Half lies, half devilry: such was the popular heathenism of the day. “Gods many and lords many” the Galatian Pagans worshipped-a strange Pantheon. There were their old, weird Celtic deities, before whom our British forefathers trembled. On this ancestral faith had been superimposed the frantic rites of the Phrygian Mother, Cybele, with her mutilated priests; and the more genial and humanistic cultus of the Greek Olympian gods. But they were gone, the whole “damned crew,” as Milton calls them; for those whose eyes had seen the glory in the face of Jesus Christ, their spell was broken; heaven was swept clear and earth pure of their foul presence. The old gods are dead. No renaissance of humanism, no witchcraft of poetry can reanimate them, To us after these eighteen centuries, as to the Galatian believers, “there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.” A man who knew the Old Testament, to say nothing of the teaching of Christ, could never sacrifice to Jupiter and Mercurius any more, nor shout “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” They were painted idols, shams; he had seen through them. They might frighten children in the dark; but the sun was up. Christianity destroyed Paganism as light kills darkness. Paul did not fear that his readers would slide back into actual heathenism. That was intellectually impossible. There are warnings in his Epistles against the spirit of idolatry, and against conformity with its customs; but none against return to its beliefs.
The old heathen life was indeed a slavery, full of fear and degradation. The religious Pagan could never be sure that he had propitiated his gods sufficiently, or given to all their due. They were jealous and revengeful, envious of human prosperity, capable of infinite wrong-doing. In the worship of many of them acts were enjoined revolting to the conscience. And this is true of Polytheism all over the world. It is the most shameful bondage ever endured by the soul of man.
But Pauls readers had “come to know God.” They had touched the great Reality. The phantoms had vanished; the Living One stood before them. His glory shone into their hearts “in the face of Jesus Christ.” This, whenever it takes place, is for any man the crisis of his life-when he comes to know God, when the God-consciousness is born in him. Like the dawn of self-consciousness, it may be gradual. There are those, the happy few, who were “born again” so soon as they were born to thought and choice; they cannot remember a time when they did not love God, when they were not sensible of being “known of Him.” But with others, as with Paul, the revelation was made at an instant, coming like a lightning-flash at midnight. But unlike the lightning it remained. Let the manifestation of God come how or when it may, it is decisive. The man into whose soul the Almighty has spoken His I Am, can never be the same afterwards. He may forget; he may deny it: but he has known God; he has seen the light of life. If he returns to darkness, his darkness is blacker and guiltier than before. On his brow there rests in all its sadness “Sorrows crown of sorrow, remembering happier things.”
Offences venial, excusable hitherto, from this time assume a graver hue. Things that in a lower stage of life were innocent, and even possessed religious value, may now be unlawful, and the practice of them a declension, the first step in apostasy. What is delightful in a child becomes folly in a grown man. The knowledge of God in Christ has raised us in the things of the spirit to mans estate, and it requires that we should “put away childish things,” and amongst them ritual display and sacerdotal officiations, Pagan, Jewish, or Romish. These things form no part of the knowledge of God, or of the “true worship of the Father.”
The Jewish “rudiments” were designed for men who had not known God as Christ declares Him, who had never seen the Saviours cross. Jewish saints could not worship God in the Spirit of adoption. They remained under the spirit of servitude and fear; their conceptions were so far “weak and poor” that they supposed the Divine favour to depend on such matters as the “washing of cups and pots,” and the precise number of feet that one walked on the Sabbath. These ideas belonged to a childish stage of the religious life. Pharisaism had developed to the utmost this lower element of the Mosaic system, at the expense of everything that was spiritual in it. Men who had been brought up in Judaism might indeed, after conversion to Christ, retain their old customs as matters of social usage or pious habit, without regarding them as vital to religion. With Gentiles it was otherwise. Adopting Jewish rites de novo, they must do so on grounds of distinct religious necessity. For this very reason the duty of circumcision was pressed upon them. It was a means, they were told, essential to their spiritual perfection, to the attainment of full Christian privileges. But to know God by the witness of the Holy Spirit of Christ, as the Galatians had done, was an experience sufficient to show that this “persuasion” was false. It did not “come of Him that called them.” It introduced them to a path the opposite of that they had entered at their conversion, a way that led downwards and not upwards, from the spiritual to the sensuous, from the salvation of faith to that of self-wrought work of law.
“Known God,” Paul says, -“or rather were known of God.” He hastens to correct himself. He will not let an expression pass that seems to ascribe anything simply to human acquisition. “Ye have not chosen Me,” said Jesus; “I have chosen you.” So the Apostle John: “Not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” This is true through the entire range of the Christian life. “We apprehend that for which we were apprehended by Christ Jesus.” Our love, our knowledge-what are they but the sense of the Divine love and knowledge in us? Religion is a bestowment, not an achievement. It is “God working in us to will and work for the sake of His good pleasure.” In this light the gospel presented itself at first to the Galatians. The preaching of the Apostle, the vision of the cross of Christ, made them sensible of Gods living presence. They. felt the gaze of an infinite purity and compassion, of an All-wise, All-pitiful Father, fixed upon them. He was calling them, slaves of idolatry and sin, “into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.” The illuminating glance of God pierced to their inmost being. In that light God and the soul met, and knew each other.
And now, after this profound, transforming revelation, this sublime communion with God, will they turn back to a life of puerile formalities, of slavish dependence and fear? Is the strength of their devotion to be spent, its fragrance exhaled in the drudgery of legal service? Surely they know God better than to think that He requires this. And He who knew them, as they have proved, and knows what was right and needful for them, has imposed no such burden. He granted them the rich gifts of His grace-the Divine sonship, the heavenly heirship-on terms of mere faith in Christ, and without legal stipulation of any kind. Is it not enough that God knows them, and counts them for His children!
So knowing, and so known, let them be content. Let them seek only to keep themselves in the love of God, and in the comfort of His Spirit. Raised to this high level, they must not decline to a lower. Their heathen “rudiments” were excusable before; but now even Jewish “rudiments” are things to be left behind.
2. It further appears that the Apostle saw an element existing in Judaism common to it with the ethnic religions. For he says that his readers, formerly “enslaved to idols,” are “now turning back to the weak and beggarly rudiments, to which they would fain be in bondage over again.”
“The rudiments” of Gal 4:9 cannot, without exegetical violence, be detached from “the rudiments of the world” of Gal 4:3. And these latter plainly signify the Judaic rites (see chapter 16.). The Judaistic practices of the Galatians were, Paul declares, a backsliding toward their old idolatries. We can only escape this construction of the passage at the cost of making the Apostles remonstrance inconsequent and pointless. The argument of the letter hitherto has been directed with concentrated purpose against Judaic conformity. To suppose that just at this point, in making its application, he turns aside without notice or explanation to an entirely different matter, is to stultify his reasoning. The only ground for referring the “days and seasons” of Gal 4:10 to any other than a Jewish origin, lies in the apprehension that such reference disparages the Christian Sabbath.
But how, we ask, was it possible for Paul to use language which identifies the revered law of God with rites of heathenism, which he accounted a “fellowship with demons”? Bishop Lightfoot has answered this question in words: “we cannot do better than quote.” The Apostle regards the higher element in heathen religion as corresponding, however imperfectly, to the lower in the Mosaic law. For we may consider both the one and the other as made up of two component parts, the spiritual and the ritualistic. Now viewed in their spiritual aspect, there is no comparison between the one and the other. In this respect the heathen religions, so far as they added anything of their own to that sense of dependence on God which is innate in man and which they could not entirely crush, were wholly bad. On the contrary, in the Mosaic law the spiritual element was most truly divine. But this does not enter into our reckoning here. For Christianity has appropriated all that was spiritual in its predecessorThe ritualistic element alone remains to be considered, and here is the meeting-point of Judaism and Heathenism. In Judaism this was as much lower than its spiritual element, as in Heathenism it was higher. Hence the two systems approach within such a distance that they can, under certain limitations, be classed together. They have at least so much in common that a lapse into Judaism can be regarded as a relapse into the position of unconverted Heathenism. Judaism was a system of bondage like Heathenism. Heathenism had been a disciplinary training like Judaism” (Commentary in loc.).
This line of explanation may perhaps be carried a step further. Judaism was rudimentary throughout. A religion so largely ritualistic could not but be spiritually and morally defective. In its partial apprehension of the Divine attributes, its limitation of Gods grace to a single people, its dim perception of immortality, there were great deficiencies in the Jewish creed. Its ethical code, moreover, was faulty; it contained “precepts given for the hardness of mens hearts”-touching, for example, the laws of marriage, and the right, of revenge. There was not a little in Judaism, especially in its Pharisaic form, that belonged to a half-awakened conscience, to a rude and sensuous religious faculty. Christ came to “fulfil the law”; but in that fulfilment He did not shrink from correcting it. He emended the letter of its teaching, that its true spirit might be elicited. For an enlightened Christian who had learned of Jesus the “royal law, the law of liberty,” to conform to Judaism was unmistakably to “turn back.” Moreover, it was just the weakest and least spiritual part of the system of Moses that the legalist teachers inculcated on Gentile Christians; while their own lives fell short of its moral requirements. {Gal 6:12}
Mosaism had been in the days of its inspiration and creative vigour the great opponent of idolatry. It was the Lords witness throughout long centuries of heathen darkness and oppression, and by its testimony has rendered splendid service to God and man. But from the standpoint of Christianity a certain degree of resemblance begins to be seen underlying this antagonism. The faith of the Israelitish people combated idolatry with weapons too much like its own. A worldly and servile element remained in it. To one who has advanced in front, positions at an earlier stage of his progress lying apart and paths widely divergent now assume the same general direction. To resort either to Jewish or heathen rites meant to turn back from Christ. It was to adopt principles of religion obsolete and unfit for those who had known God through Him. What in its time and for its purpose was excellent-nay, indispensable-in doctrine and in worship in time also had “decayed and waxed old.” To tie the living spirit of Christianity to dead forms is to tie it to corruption.
“Weak and beggarly rudiments”-it is a hard sentence; and yet what else were Jewish ceremonies and rules of diet, in comparison with “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost”? What was circumcision, “now that there was no longer Jew and Greek”? What was there in Saturday more than in any other day of the week, if it ceased to be a sign between the Lord of the Sabbath and His people? These things were, as Paul saw them, the cast-clothes of religion. For Gentile Christians the history of the Jewish ordinances had much instruction; but their observance was no where more binding than that of heathen ceremonies. Even in the ancient times God valued them only as they were the expression of a devout, believing spirit. “Your new moons and your appointed feasts,” He had said to an ungodly generation, “My soul hateth”. {Isa 1:14} And was He likely to accept them now, when they were enforced by ambition and party-spirit, at the expense of His Churchs peace; when their observance turned mens thoughts away from faith in His Son, and in the power of His life-giving Spirit? There is nothing too severe, too scornful for Paul to say of these venerable rites of Israel, now that they stand in the way of a living faith and trammel the freedom of the sons of God. He tosses them aside as the swaddling-bands of the Churchs infancy-childish fetters too weak to hold the limbs of grown men. “He brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan-a piece of brass.” {2Ki 18:4} Brave Hezekiah! Paul does the same with the whole ceremonial of Moses. “Beggarly rudiments,” he says. What divine refreshment there is in a blast of wholesome scorn! It was their traditions, their ritual that the Judaists worshipped, not the Holy One of Israel. “They would compass sea and land to make one proselyte,” and then “make him twofold more the child of hell than themselves.” This was the only result that the success of the Judaistic agitation could have achieved.
In thus decrying Jewish ordinances, the Apostle by implication allows a certain value to the rites of Paganism. The Galatians were formerly in bondage to “them that are no gods.” Now, he says, they are turning again to the like servitude by conforming to Mosaic legalism. They wish to come again under subjection to “the weak and poor rudiments.” In Galatian heathenism Paul appears to recognise “rudiments” of truth and a certain preparation for Christianity. While Judaic rites amounted to no more than rudiments of a spiritual faith, there were influences at work in Paganism that come under the same category. Paul believed that “God had not left Himself without witness to any.” He never treated heathen creeds with indiscriminate contempt, as though they were utterly corrupt and worthless. Witness his address to the “religious” Athenians, and to the wild people of Lycaonia. {Act 14:15-17; Act 17:22-31} He finds his text in “certain of your own (heathen) poets.” He appeals to the sense of a Divine presence “not far from any one of us”; and declares that though God was “unknown” to the nations, they were under His guidance and were “feeling after Him.” To this extent Paul admits a Preparatio evangelica in the Gentile world; he would have been prepared, with Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and with modern students of comparative religion, to trace in the poets and wise men of Greece, in the lawgivers of Rome, in the mystics of the East, presentiments of Christianity, ideas and aspirations that pointed to it as their fulfilment. The human race was not left in total darkness beyond the range of the light shining on Zions hill. The old Pagans, “suckled in a creed outworn,” were not altogether God-forsaken. They too, amid darkness like the shadow of death, had “glimpses that might make them less forlorn.” And so have the heathen still. We must not suppose either that revealed religion was perfect from the beginning; or that the natural religions were altogether without fragments and rudiments of saving truth.
“Days you are scrupulously keeping, and months, and seasons, and years,”-the weekly sabbath, the new moon, the annual festivals, the sacred seventh year, the round of the Jewish Calendar. On these matters the Galatians had, as it seems, already fallen in with the directions of the Jewish teachers. The word by which the Apostle describes their practice, , denotes, besides the fact, the manner and spirit of the observance-an assiduous, anxious attention, such as the spirit of legal exaction dictated. These prescriptions the Galatians would the more readily adopt, because in their heathen life they were accustomed to stated celebrations. The Pagan Calendar was crowded with days sacred to gods and divine heroes. This resemblance justified Paul all the more in taxing them with relapsing towards heathenism.
The Church of later centuries, both in its Eastern and Western branch, went far in the same direction. It made the keeping of holy days a prominent and obligatory part of Christianity; it has multiplied them superstitiously and beyond all reason. Amongst the rest it incorporated heathen festivals, too little changed by their consecration.
Pauls remonstrance condemns in principle the enforcement of sacred seasons as things essential to salvation, in the sense in which the Jewish Sabbath was the bond of the ancient covenant. We may not place even the Lords Day upon this footing. Far different from this is the unforced and grateful celebration of the First Day of the week, which sprang up in the Apostolic Church, and is assumed by the Apostles Paul and John. {1Co 16:2; Rev 1:10} The rule of the seventh days rest has so much intrinsic fitness, and has brought with it so many benefits, that after it had been enforced by strict law in the Jewish Church for so long, its maintenance could now be left, without express re-enactment, as a matter of freedom to the good sense and right feeling of Christian believers, “sons of the resurrection.” Its legislative sanction rests on grounds of public propriety and national well-being, which need not to be asserted here. Wherever the “Lord of the Sabbath” rules, His Day will be gladly kept for His sake.
The Apostle in protecting Gentile liberties is no enemy to order in worship and outward life. No one can justly quote his authority in opposition to such appointments as a Christian community may make, for reasons of expediency and decorum, in the regulation of its affairs. But he teaches that the essence of Christianity does not lie in things of this kind, not in questions of meat and drink, nor of time and place. To put these details, however important in their own order, on a level with righteousness, mercy, and faith, is to bring a snare upon the conscience; it is to introduce once more into the Church the leaven of justification by works of law.
“Weak and poor” the best forms of piety become, without inward knowledge of God. Liturgies, creeds and confessions, church music and architecture, Sundays, fasts, festivals, are beautiful things when they are the transcript of a living faith. When that is gone, their charm, their spiritual worth is gone. They no longer belong to religion; they have ceased to be a bond between the souls of men and God. “According to our faith”-our actual, not professional or “confessional” faith-“it shall be done unto us”: such is the rule of Christ. To cling to formularies which have lost their meaning and to which the Spirit of truth gives no present witness, is a demoralising bondage.
But this is not the only, nor the commonest way in which the sons of God are tempted to return to bondage. “Whosoever committeth sin, ” Christ said, “is the servant of sin.” And the Apostle will have to warn his readers that by their abuse of liberty, by their readiness to make it “an occasion to the flesh,” they were likely to forfeit it. “They that are Christs have crucified the flesh”. {Gal 5:24} This warning must be balanced against the other. Our liberty from outward constraint should be still more a liberty from the dominion of self, from pride and desire and anger; or it is not the liberty of Gods children. Inward servitude is, after all, the vilest and worst.
“You make me afraid,” at last the Apostle is compelled to say, “that I have laboured in vain.” His enemies had caused him no such fear. While his children in the faith were true to him, he was afraid of nothing. “Now we live,” he says in one of his Epistles, “if ye stand fast in the Lord! “But if they should fall away? He trembles for his own work, for these wayward children who had already caused him so many pangs. It is in a tone of the deepest solicitude that he continues his expostulation in the following paragraph.