Galatians, chapter 4, comments

 

Galatians 4:1 ¶ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The Holy Spirit, guiding Paul in his wisdom, likens our time in the world before Christ to being under a sort of tutor just as he likened the Law given to Moses previously as a schoolmaster. We were in bondage, though. It was then that Christ became the vehicle of our adoption by God, to be His own sons and daughters. So, when the time was right we received the adoption, leaving the things under which we labored, the world and the Law.

The Spirit of God and Christ, the Holy Spirit, indwells each genuine believer.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

We are now the children of God and heirs of God through Christ.

Galatians 4:8 ¶ 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.

While a good sermon can be made about modern “gods” of wealth, entertainment, sex, etc. this is specifically referring to the danger of the Judaizing element in early Christianity. On the surface we might view this as a warning about the gods of the Graeco-Roman world but upon review of the entire letter and, indeed, most of Paul’s letters it becomes clearer that this is a warning against adopting the rituals and observances of the Jews as the basis for Christian faith. One might think one is justified by their strict observance of Jewish dates and seasons but then that person would be wrong based on what Paul has said previously and will say again.

So, it seems that Paul is warning them that they were once enslaved to gods, little g, and have now made themselves slaves to Jewish observances. Paul is warning them not to give up the freedom they have in Christ.

 

Galatians 4:12 ¶ 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. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, 20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

Hear is evidence that Paul’s affliction had to do with his eyesight. Remember how he was blinded on the road to Damascus.

Saul is blinded temporarily but his vision never fully recovers.  While the Bible does not specifically say that Paul’s vision was bad it definitely suggests that this was a problem from here on out.

 

2Corinthians 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

 

He refers to a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh.

 

Verse 15 suggests there is something wrong with his eyes.

 

Galatians 6:11  Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

 

In verse 14 we have an important Bible interpretation issue. The word even as meaning the same is used in other locations in the Bible to tell us how to understand its use.

In Genesis 6:17 it is I, even I. In Genesis 9:3 it is the green herb being meat or food. While even has other uses here it is shown to link Jesus as an angel or appearance of God. This is consistent with other Bible statements like;

Judges 2:1 And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

We know that an angel is an appearance or presence of someone or some thing who is someplace else as I have shown many times in my comments on the Bible.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. See Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:3.

Paul is worried about the spiritual welfare of these Galatians.

Galatians 4:21 ¶ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

See the comparison Paul makes here between justification under the Law and justification under Christ. He links Ishmael and Isaac as being a son of the flesh and a son of the promise. He links Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, with Mount Sinai from whence the Law was issued and Sarah as the New Jerusalem representing our salvation in Christ. He reinforces the superior state of blessedness of being in Christ as being devoted to following the Law to justify oneself. This is the burden the Judaizers want to put the Christian back under, that of self-justification rather than being justified by God through Christ.

Galatians 4:27 ¶ For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Some commentators say this verse refers to the explosive and surprising growth of the Christian faith. It is a reference to;

Isaiah 54:1 ¶  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

 

Keep in mind, though, this verse in Psalms.

 

Psalm 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Galatians 4:28 ¶ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Some rabbis declared that the beginning of the 400 or so years of persecution of the Israelites began with Ishmael mocking Isaac.

Genesis 21:8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

At this point in Christian history it is Jews who are persecuting Gentile and Jewish Christians. So, Paul is calling the Jews the children born after the flesh and the Christians the children born after the Spirit of God.

Galatians 4:30 ¶ Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

This is a clear division between the unbelieving Jews and those Jews and Gentiles (Greeks) who have trusted in Christ. There is no room for the Judaizers in Christianity. Paul is setting a clearly different path for the Christian faith that will abandon the tendency to follow Jewish Law and tradition and forge a new faith that is not a mere sect of Judaism but a force all its own.

Galatians 4:31 ¶ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

So, Paul declares here a complete break with the Jewish roots of Christianity.