December 22
________________________________________
WHY ENSLAVE YOURSELF AGAIN?
However, at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not 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 elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? 10 You meticulously observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. – Galatians 4:8-11
________________________________________
In this letter to the Galatians, Paul challenges them to examine what they were doing. In the earlier part of this letter, he explained the adoption process that took place when Christ sacrificed his life on the cross for all sinners to be free. From being slaves of sin, we are adopted into the kingdom of God and now we are heirs of God.
Paul continues to warn and rebuke them in verse 9 because he has already shared with them the gospel of Jesus’ act of redeeming them from their slavery. Jesus bought us back from the ownership of the world so we could be sons and daughters of God. He confronts their weakness to go back to the old ways of following the world systems.
According to a commentary the bondage is natural when we did not know God and when we served those things that are not gods. Yet now the Galatians have known God and yet placed themselves under bondage. This was what amazed Paul. In turning to legalism, the Galatians were not turning to a new error, but coming back to an old one – the idea of a works relationship with God. Wiersbe comments “One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a ‘second childhood’ of Christian experience.” Stott paraphrased the thought: “If you were a slave and are now a son, if you did not know God but have now come to know Him and to be known by Him, how can you turn back again to the old slavery? How can you allow yourself to be enslaved by the very elemental spirits from whom Jesus Christ has rescued you?” The false teachers among the Galatians demanded the observance of days and months and seasons and years and other such legalistic matters and acted as if this would lead them into a higher plane of spirituality. Yet all these weak and beggarly elements of legalism did was to bring them into bondage. Paul’s fear was that this attraction to legalism would mean that his work among the Galatians amounted to nothing and would end up being in vain.
________________________________________
REFLECTION
• What brings back Christians into slavery when they have already been freed?