Bible Study - Galatians Chapter 4
Bible Study - Galatians Chapter 4
| 1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. | These two verses are an analogy about living under the law. A minor who is the heir in a wealthy home is legally the lord of the estate. But until he reaches the age of majority, which in this time and culture would have been set by his father, he lives no different than a slave in that he is under a guardianship. | ||
| 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. |
While humanity was a child morally, we were under the law, the elemental things or rudimentary principles. This is like a child who is given rules to obey by rote when they are young. As they grow in maturity and understanding they are entrusted to guide themselves according to the values they've been taught and are now able to decide what is the right thing to do without explicit rules. In other words, the law was our guardian until we reached the age of responsibility as determined by our Father in heaven. | ||
| 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, |
God sent his Son when the time was right. The theology of this verse is that the preexistent Son of God was sent to be born of Mary and was subject to the same burdens we were under. The case endings in Greek make it clear that the Son of God is both born of a woman and also born under the law. It is not that the woman is born under the law, (although that is also true, it is not what Paul is saying.) | ||
| 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. | The purpose of Christ's incarnation was to redeem us from sin. Through Jesus we are redeemed from the burden of the law, the condemnation of the law, and graduate out from under the supervision of the law. Thus we are the beneficiaries of a new relationship with God, elevating us from slaves to adapted sons and heirs. | ||
| 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" |
This is a commonly misunderstood verse for two reasons. One, it is common for people to see pneuma in Greek, or Spirit in English, and assume it means the Holy Spirit. However, that is reading into the text. In Luke 24:37 it records that when Jesus appeared to the disciples post-resurrection they were frightened and thought they had seen a ghost, and the word for ghost is spirit, pneuma in Greek. 1 Timothy 1:7 says God did not give us a spirit, pneuma, of timidity. Neither of these is the Spirit or Holy Spirit. Pneuma is a word with multiple uses and meanings. The second reason is people make the mistake of assuming that it is only the Holy Spirit that is in us. However, scripture is clear that Jesus lives in us as well in Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:27, Ephesians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Matthew 28:20, and Hebrews 13:5. This verse refers to the Spirit of Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus dwells in us, we are adopted and are co-heirs with Jesus, and we now call out to God the Father as our father. | ||
| 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. | Because of Jesus, we are freed from slavery and adopted as a son and co-heir with Jesus by the gracious act of God. | ||
| 8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. | This is a direct reference to the pre-conversion pagan beliefs of the Galatians. The justification by works belief system of the temples was slavery to fake gods. And as stated before, works did not actually justify. Christ sets us free from slavery to false gods and idols. | ||
| 9 But 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? |
Now we know God, although Paul flips the point of reference to God's perspective. This doesn't mean God didn't know us before we believed. This is the knowing in the sense of relationship. For example, in an aristocracy when a man inherits his title from his father it isn't official until he is "known" or recognized by the crown. The new lord may have bowed to the king a hundred times in the past. But until he bows to the king as the holder of the title, thereby swearing his fealty, it is not a reality. All this is to say that Paul is reminding us that we are God's by His grace alone. We do not know God by any other means. It is not by legalism, which is doing. Nor by mysticism, which is seeking. Not by gnosticism, which is knowing. God does not force us. We have a choice. But once that choice is made we know Him entirely by His grace which we do not deserve. Therefore, it is ridiculous to turn back to the worthless pagan belief system, even if it is mixed up with twisted Judaic facade, and the slavery of justification by works. | ||
| 10 ou observe days and months and seasons and years. |
The lack of a connective particle in the Greek for a sentence that is so obviously connected emphasizes the passion or highlight of the following sentence. That they are observing these things as they used to is evidence of how they have fallen. They didn't even realize that they had turned back to their pagan ways. They thought they were being more holy by following the instructions of the Judaizers. But they weren't following Judaism because Judaism is not legalistic, it's nomistic. They didn't understand nomism just as we don't because neither they nor we have any frame of reference for it. So we and Galatians falsely equate the legalism of our secular/pagan culture with Judaism. | ||
| 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. | The fear is that they have turned away from God and the gospel, while thinking they were being holy. It is a thousand times easier to convince a person who knows they are a sinner they need repentance than to convince a sinner who thinks they are holy. But the tense of the verbs indicates the story isn't over. There yet may be hope for a return to the gospel. | ||
| 12 I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; |
Paul lived like a gentile when he lived with them. He ate the non-kosher food they prepared. He ate with them, and eating with gentiles was itself a cause of being ritually unclean. A guilt trip about this was the cause of Peter falling away from the gospel for a time. You did not wrong me could refer to many things. But in the context it most likely refers to the fact that their turning away from Paul's teaching isn't an affront to him, but to God. | ||
| 13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; | Paul's illness was the reason for Paul's preaching to the Galatians. Whether this caused him to stay longer on what was supposed to be a stop on the way to another location, or it was the illness that caused him to divert to Galatia is not recorded. This also could have been the result of the frequent physical persecution Paul suffered. We don't really know. | ||
| 14 and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. | Illness was often viewed as evidence of supernatural disfavor or demonic attack. Thus it was common to look down on people who were ill. Also one who is injured due to physical persecution, such as the many times Paul was beaten and whipped, is in official governmental disfavor. Caring for someone like that could bring the official disfavor on themselves. It is likely that one of those options is what Paul is referring to and not some fear of contagion like with the lepers. Or it was simply the fact that an ill person is a burden. | ||
| 15 Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. |
Again, the trial could be accepting Paul despite the stigma of his illness. Or it could be the burden of caring for him. Whichever the case, it would make listening to and accepting the gospel Paul preached more unlikely. Even today people are more receptive to a message from strength than weakness. Some has inferred from the end of this verse that Paul's affliction, and the thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, was his eyesight. But that is reading into the text. Far more likely this is typical Pauline hyperbole expressing that the level of their care was selfless to an over the top degree. | ||
| 16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? | Paul is indignant that they have rejected the truth of the gospel they so eagerly accepted when he was there. Their turning away is like they have changed their attitude from a messenger angel to that of an enemy. | ||
| 17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. |
There is some debate as to the meaning here. What is clear is that some are seeking the Galatians with bad intentions, and their goal is shut the Galatians out of something so that the Galatians will turn to the ones with bad intentions. That the shutting out is being cut off from the Gospel is very likely. Most take Paul to mean the Judaizers are seeking the Galatians to cut them off from the gospel and seek to become Jews. This fits with the situation. However, it also fits that the pagan religions they used to be part of are seeking them to cut them off from the gospel and turn back to them. Perhaps Paul isn't specific because he means all anti-gospel influences. | ||
| 18 But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you. | This appears to be an expression or maxim of the time in the first part of the verse, to which Paul adds the qualifier "in a good way." This is in contrast to the Judaizers and Pagans that are seeking in a bad way. The end of the verse means it's not just Paul alone seeking them while they're in person that is good. Other teachers with good intentions and the gospel are also a good thing. | ||
| 19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you - |
This is a pivot from the scolding to concern and affection. Paul compares his work to bring them to Christ to the pain of giving birth. Here is another verse referring to Christ living in Christians. | ||
| 20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. | Paul's wish to be with the Galatians in person is about his affection for them, and his feeling that he could figure out what's really going on in person. | ||
| 21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? |
Here Paul begins a final argument against both the pagan legalism and Judaic nomism through verse 31.
While in English Paul appears to be addressing a faction in the Galatian churches. But his choice of words in Greek are an address to everyone in the church. Hearing the law is not an idle activity in Jewish thinking. To hear scripture read means that it is brought inside the hearer, understood, and obeyed. This is a single process. Paul's point is that if they really heard the law they would understand the purpose of the law was to be a teacher until the coming of Jesus Christ. | ||
| 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. |
This is a summary of the story of Abraham in the Old Testament, the foundation of the Judaizers' argument. Paul usually uses direct quotations for his arguments. However, this is a foundational story that all should be aware of at such a level that it isn't necessary to use proper names. For review, God promised Abraham, (Abram at this time and 76 years old,) a son and the land that would become Israel. After 10 years, his wife Sarah, (Sarai at this time and 76 years old, Abraham was 86,) gave up on ever having a child, and told Abraham to have a child by her Egyptian maid slave. Abraham went along with Sarah's plan and Ishmael was the result. 13 years later, and 23 years after the promise of a son, Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90 and childless when God gave him the covenant of circumcision, and that he would be the father of a multitude. It was still another year before Sarah gave birth to Isaac. | ||
| 23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. |
Ishmael was born of Hagar out of the flesh. Sarah, operating out of the flesh, came up with an earthly plan to give an heir to Abraham. This was wrong on several levels, not the least of which it was a loss of faith in the promise of God. Isaac was born by Sarah out of God's promise. | ||
| 24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. |
Paul explicitly states he is speaking allegorically from this point, although he is saying the allegory is in the scripture and he is not adding to its meaning. The two women represent two covenants. Hagar is the covenant of slavery, and Paul has previously said that living under the law is slavery. | ||
| 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. | Hagar as allegory is the state of Jerusalem at the time, in slavery to the law. This is a Torah-centered covenant. | ||
| 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. | Jerusalem above is the heavenly Jerusalem redeemed by Christ on the cross. This is the Christ-centered covenant the first covenant was to lead us to. | ||
27
For it is written,
| This is a quote from Isaiah 54:1. Paul is identifying this prophetic word about the future glory of Jerusalem with Sarah. Because of the new covenant, all Christians, even gentiles, have the heavenly Jerusalem and Sarah as our mother. | ||
| 28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. | Through Christ we are part of the promise to Abram, adopted into the family and inheritance as God's chosen people. | ||
| 29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. | Just as Ishmael and his descendants have persecuted Isaac and his descendants, the Galatian church is persecuted by those operating in the flesh instead of the spirit. And we are also persecuted this way. (If we are not, it may be because we are perceived to be the allies of those who operate in the flesh.) | ||
30
But what does the Scripture say?
|
This is a combined quote from Genesis 21:10, 12 and John 8:35. It is likely that this is a direct rebuke of the Judaizers' arguments. The meaning is that neither legalistic nor nomistic bondage can coexist with the spiritual freedom that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is a call to cast out agents of bondage. (Jews who continue to live their lives under the law but don't seek to impose it on others are not part of this call for expulsion.) | ||
| 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman. | This is a repetition, which Paul often uses to foot-stomp a point. It is important that Paul refers to them as brethren, despite the mess they have made of things, going back to their pagan works-based belief system. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.