Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Galatians 4:1-20

¹But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all; ²but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father. ³So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. ⁶And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. ⁸However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? ¹⁰You observe days, months, seasons, and years. ¹¹I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you. ¹²I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong, ¹³but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. ¹⁴That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? ¹⁷They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them. ¹⁸But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you— ²⁰but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I speak of the "child" who is heir yet "no different from a slave" (Galatians 4:1), the word carries the picture of a boy under age — one who owns everything and possesses nothing, hemmed in by guardians until the day the father has set. And when I cry that God sent his Son so that we might receive "adoption" (Galatians 4:5), hear it as it stands: not that you were born his by nature, but that you were placed as sons by his choosing and his cost — brought in from outside, given the full standing of the family. Then the Spirit teaches you to say "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6) — the very word a child uses at home, intimate and unafraid.

Where else you say this

I take up this same thread of adoption and the Spirit's cry in another letter, where I say you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15). I speak again of the fullness of time and the gathering up of all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). And that turn from slavery to sonship to heir I press once more: "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Galatians 4:7).

The situation

I had preached Christ crucified to the Galatians, and they had received me as an angel of God — would have torn out their own eyes for me (Galatians 4:14,15). This while I was weak in the flesh, some bodily trial that first brought me among them. But after I left, others came teaching that faith in Christ was not enough — that they must take up the law, its days and months and seasons (Galatians 4:10), to be truly God's. So they were turning back to the weak and worthless elemental things, and I feared I had labored over them in vain (Galatians 4:11). I write in the anguish of a mother in labor again, until Christ be formed in them (Galatians 4:19).

The hard question

You may ask: if these were once slaves who did not know God (Galatians 4:8), how can I say they are turning back to bondage by keeping the law God himself gave? Do not soften it. The law was holy, but it was the guardian for a child not yet come of age — and to run to it now, after the Son has come, is to prefer the nursery to the inheritance, to trade sonship for slavery no matter how the chains are engraved. Whether a man returns to pagan idols or to a law-keeping that shuts out Christ's finished work, he is under the same yoke: seeking to be justified by something other than grace. Read again what I wrote them, and see whether the difference is the object of the chain — or the freedom Christ bought at the cross.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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