Galatians 4:8-11
8: However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.
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?
10: You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11: I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
At that time—or when you were a servant and not a son—when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that are not gods. Things that aren’t even real and have no power in and of themselves. The Gentiles would have been enslaved to various forms of idol worship. Paul addressed that here pointing out that when they were enslaved to these things, it was when they didn’t know God. Knowing God brought them into freedom from these things they had been enslaved to.
Paul asked, how they could, now that they knew God, or rather were known by God, turn back to those things they'd been freed from. For the Jews this was the Law. For the Gentiles this was not going back into the same bondage they were freed from, but a new bondage—the same Law that the Jews had been freed from! The Law which, as we’ve seen, was put in place as a tutor, to lead the people to the discovery that they were in fact prone to sin, bound by sin, and needed the Messiah to deliver them from this bondage.
Observing the Law to attempt justification or a level of right-standing with God apart from what Christ alone has provided, is a step backward into bondage, not forward into further discovering and exploring the freedom He obtained for us in sonship.
Paul expressed his fears that his hard work among them had been for nothing. If they became deceived by this idea that keeping the Law would somehow benefit them in their standing with God, he doubted whether they would grow at all in Christ, or whether the foundation of their salvation could even come into play.
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?
10: You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11: I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
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At that time—or when you were a servant and not a son—when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that are not gods. Things that aren’t even real and have no power in and of themselves. The Gentiles would have been enslaved to various forms of idol worship. Paul addressed that here pointing out that when they were enslaved to these things, it was when they didn’t know God. Knowing God brought them into freedom from these things they had been enslaved to.
Paul asked, how they could, now that they knew God, or rather were known by God, turn back to those things they'd been freed from. For the Jews this was the Law. For the Gentiles this was not going back into the same bondage they were freed from, but a new bondage—the same Law that the Jews had been freed from! The Law which, as we’ve seen, was put in place as a tutor, to lead the people to the discovery that they were in fact prone to sin, bound by sin, and needed the Messiah to deliver them from this bondage.
Observing the Law to attempt justification or a level of right-standing with God apart from what Christ alone has provided, is a step backward into bondage, not forward into further discovering and exploring the freedom He obtained for us in sonship.
Paul expressed his fears that his hard work among them had been for nothing. If they became deceived by this idea that keeping the Law would somehow benefit them in their standing with God, he doubted whether they would grow at all in Christ, or whether the foundation of their salvation could even come into play.
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