I believe today’s Text Verse reflects conditions as they were when Paul first preached the Gospel to the Galatians. “Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.” Galatians 4:12

Here Paul is saying something like this: “Dear Brothers (and Sisters) in Christ, I beg of you (urge you) to live a life of liberty in Jesus Christ our Lord, as I do. Because I too (like you) have been set free form all other entanglements (heathen or religious). At the first when I came to you preaching Jesus, you certainly did not hurt me in any way.” Rather, as we shall see tomorrow, they respected Paul greatly!

Wow!

In today’s short Line (“Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.”) the noun “brethren” means “two or more born from the same womb!” In other words, “saved people.” In Greek, “adelphos.”

And the verb “beseech” is “deomai,” an unusual wording here, meaning “to pray” 12 times in the New Testament and “to make a request” 1 time. As well as “to beseech” 9 times.

Then the other word of note is “injured,” a rendering of “adikeo” in Greek. Meaning “to do (someone) wrong.” Thus, they did Paul NO harm!

Folks, really … today’s verse must be connected to tomorrow’s Text to see its overall “setting.”

But clearly, Paul is communicating personally with his loved ones in Galatia.

Love … one of the key words in the Christian Life!

Praise the Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In what is (far more than I ever though) one of Paul’s most personal Epistles … GALATIANS reveals the great Apostle’s heart (which is “breaking” over the faithlessness of his people)!

The Galatian Christians are (some of them anyway) drifting dangerously toward the Law of Moses as their standard of operation, leaving behind the far superior Grace of God (as the means of living a pure, godly life).

Today we (again) heart Paul’s human spirit cry: “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” Galatians 4:11, really the Holy Spirit is saying this too, since the Bible is divinely inspired, inerrantly so!

The objective pronouns here in the verse are plural, “you” means (both times) the Galatians “en masse” (as a group). Hopefully not the whole Church body in Galatia, but it sure looks like a lot of them! 

Paul, frankly, is worried!

“I am afraid of you”

In Greek, “Phobeomai su.”

Paul has developed (literally) a “phobia” concerning the Galatians’ spiritual wellbeing! The preposition “of” has been supplied by the King James translators here, for clarity. The “you” is both plural and “accusative.” It is the direct object of the verb “I fear.” Because “phoboumai” here is a 1st person singular verb.

Paul is fearful (beside himself) over the condition these Galatian converts have adopted for themselves. As potentially “new” disciples of Moses, of the sect of so-called Christians (but not really so) back in Jerusalem. Something like this, “I am fearful for you,” Paul is saying, with tears in his eyes I suspect.

Then the “hammer” drops!

I am fearful of (for) you … “lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

Wow!

“To bestow labour” translates the Greek verb “kopiao.” (Still 1st person singular, active voice.) This is the most intense word in the Greek language for “work.” HARD WORK! Even TOIL! We would say in the South, “working your fingers to the bones!” 

No telling the hours Paul has invested in those Galatians churches!

And the grief, suffering, hardships!

Like being stoned to death (or nearly so) in Lystra! You can read about it in Acts 14. Verse 9 there is specific: “And there came thither (to Lystra, a Galatian city) certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.”

What dedication Paul had, what loyalty to Jesus and to the Galatians!

But … Paul is now wondering if the Galatians really had ever been saved! Again: “Lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

The prepositional phrase “in vain” is “eike” in Greek, meaning “without purpose.” It is translated once in our New Testament “without a cause.” In Matthew 5:22, Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. Useless, Paul’s Galatian ministry?

Wow!

Paul is a champion for the Grace of God!

A real defender of the Gospel of Grace!

And seemingly a valid opponent of the Law of Moses as an expedient/catalyst of genuine salvation! (Only Jesus saves!)

Addressing the Galatians, the (once considered) dear people of God … Paul’s heart is breaking as he says (writes) it: “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

Saved, by Grace!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, “upon you,” as in “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed UPON YOU  labour in vain,” is in Greek “eis su.” Literally “into you!” Paul apparently feels he has so fiercely labored for the Galatian Churches’ welfare that he has actually worked his way “into” their hearts!

No wonder he is so broken over their lapse!

God, give us again Pastors who care that much!

 

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” Galatians 4:10, Paul’s short but rather caustic observation concerning the Galatians new (bad) habits!

The verb “observe” is in the indicative mood here, stating a clear fact. It is also written here in the present tense, action happening at that very time. They had not stopped such ritualism! And the verb is also in the “middle” voice (which we do not have in English), showing us that the observations Paul is depicting are impacting the Galatians themselves in a negative way. (What they were then doing was hurting them spiritually!) Plus the verb is plural, a lot of the Galatians had fallen into this Judiazing/legalistic trap! In Greek this key word is spelled “paratereo,” meaning to “watch over” or even “to guard” certain things. Almost … to “count the days” until they arrive!

No longer are these Christians solely delighting (glorying) in the Grace of God! 

They now serve the Law of Moses and its many “timely” requirements.

Wow!

Oh, one further nuance which I must mention.

In the ancient heathen world, out of which these Galatians were saved, “horoscopes” ruled supremely! A superstitious way of life was followed by nearly everyone. Days and months were declared “lucky” or “unlucky.” Certain years were declared (by means of omens and spells) to be safe for major decisions, others were not good times, “bad vibes!”

But God had saved the Galatians out of that background! 

(The early Christians in Ephesus had such magic books! Acts 19:19 tells us what they did with them! “Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and BURNED THEM before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Wow!)

But now … since these (troublemaking) people from Jerusalem have come, the Galatians have begun to observe the special days of the Old Testament Law! (Remember Galatians 2:2? “Certain men came from James.” And James was a legalist! I personally believe he played a detrimental role in Paul’s premature death!)

Yes, the Galatians are once again observing … “days, and months, and times, and years.”

True, no longer in the “luck oriented” pagan sense (from which they had been set free) … but in a “Moses oriented” sense (which observances they have now begun to obey)! But still (after a brief interlude of liberty), slaves to the calendar!

Full circle the Galatians had ironically come, but in a bad way!

Yes, the Judiazers thought they were being “Biblical!” (Wresting such verses as Genesis 1:14 from their proper context.  “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for SEASONS, and for DAYS, and YEARS: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.”)

Observing days?

Yes, every 7th day, the weekly Sabbaths.

Or circumcising all the baby boys on the 8th day, specifically! (Leviticus 12:3 … “And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”)

Observing months?

Yes, especially the “new moons.” (Numbers 28:11 … “And in the beginnings of your MONTHS ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot ….”) The Jews observed a lunar (based on the moon) calendar, not a solar calendar.

Observing times?

Yes, especially the annual eight day Feasts such as Passover or Tabernacles!

And years?

Yes, no doubt the (twice a century) Year of Jubilee or the regularly (and more frequently) occurring Sabbatical years!

Wow!

Back into ritualistic bondage!

And Paul is ashamed of such behavior!

Anyway, those are my ideas on our Text today, Galatians 4:10. “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.”

Folks, I love my freedom in Christ Jesus!

Free to live a godly life (because I desire to do so), being motivated by the Holy Spirit Himself, not by a complicated Rule Book! Serving Jesus through love, not through hundreds (if not thousands) of demands! 

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

This too. We now understand that the Legalizers from Jerusalem were demanding at least three things from Paul’s new Galatian converts to Jesus.

1. Circumcision … these men literally preached “circumcision!” (An “operation,” a form of “surgery,” being forced on these Gentiles!) Which Paul did not preach, certainly not as a requirement for salvation! See Galatians 5:11, for example.

2. Eating by the Jewish (Mosaic) food laws! (A complete change of diet for these once heathen Christians!) As is illustrated by Galatians 2:12, the way Peter acted when those big-shots from Jerusalem came to Antioch! “For before that certain (men) came from James, Peter did EAT with the Gentiles (non-Kosher foods): but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself (not eating just “anything” any more), fearing them which were of the circumcision.” Wow!

3. And today we have learned … observing the precise Jewish calendar! All its days and months and years!

No wonder Paul will yet write to the Galatians … “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the YOKE OF BONDAGE (with the Law).” Galatians 5:1

Essential advice!

It seems the Galatians (maybe even all human beings) enjoyed being “under bondage” to something, or someone!

At least Galatians 4:9 wonders about that!

Today is our third (Website) Lesson on this great Verse!

“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?” I have emphasized today’s Clause by making it all capital letters.

The verb “to be (in) bondage” as used by Paul here is “douleuo” in Greek. Remember, “doulos” is their word for an abject “slave!” The very lowest position on the Greek social scale!

Paul later will pen these amazing words: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE ….” Romans 8:2, no longer subservient to sin and all its evils! Free in the delightful Holy Spirit of God!

And the adverb “again” in our Text simply means “once more.” (As in “once more” in a whole chain of events or situations!)

“The way your Galatians are acting, behaving … ‘DO YOU ONCE MORE DESIRE TO BE IN SLAVERY, REJECTING YOUR GRACIOUS (NEWLY BESTOWED) LIBERTY IN JESUS CHRIST?'” So wonders Paul, out loud!

Then the verb “desire!” Which is “thelo” in this case. It means “to wish, to intend, to have in mind” something. And its a present “tense,” active voice word, meaning this “desiring” they are doing is habitual! A “way of life,” actually!

Honestly, it looks (to Paul) like his converts in Roman Galatia are determined not to enjoy their freedom in Jesus Christ!

Stubbornly set on being servants (at first to idolatry, from which Jesus had freed them when they were saved) then now again (as Paul writes them) menials/slaves to the Old Testament Law! (Being forced on them by certain Jews from Jerusalem who essentially worshipped Moses.)

When all the while they (the Galatians) were born-again Christians, having been redeemed (set free) by the Blood of Jesus Christ God’s Virgin-born Son!

“Whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”

But wait a minute!

Is our Text implying that Freedom in Jesus is something we ex-sinners (who have always been in bondage to the world or our flesh or the devil) have to learn to enjoy?

I think maybe so!

Here’s why Jesus came to earth in the first place: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, and THE OPENING OF PRISON TO THEM THAT ARE BOUND; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” Wow, Isaiah 61:1-3, clearly Messianic! Note the capitalized phrases again!

Liberty!

No longer in prison!

But we are so hesitant to live up to such a thrilling “calling!”

The Liberty Jesus gives is (true enough) NOT …  freedom to do what I want in my body! But it is the power to do what our Lord wants as guided and equipped by the Holy Spirit! 

And living day by day (hour by hour) under the Influence of God’s Holy Spirit, enjoying every second of His being in control of my life … is really (in the truest sense) LIBERTY, as God defines it!

And apart from such (glorious) Holy Spirit dominance … we all will revert to some kind of self-imposed (or at least humanly imposed) slavery!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, God’s Word plays an important part in our Christian liberty, too. But that’s another Lesson sometime later! “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” Psalm 119:45

 

Adjectives they are, “weak” and “beggarly” both!

And there’s not (among scholars and theologians) a full consensus on what (exactly) they are describing in Galatians 4:9, Paul’s great divinely inspired Treatise on our Liberty in Christ, or maybe better, on the Grace of God! 

Here’s our Text today: “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?”

The word “weak” (in Greek) is “asthenes,” literally meaning “no strength.” (The root word here may be a negation related to “histemi,” another Greek verb meaning “to stand!” As in (not) standing strong!

It’s twin descriptor “beggarly” translates “ptochos,” a word suggesting “abject poverty,” even to the extreme state of having to “beg” for things!

Not very flattering terms!

And the Galatian Christians “have turned” (have looked away from Paul’s teaching toward some new doctrine they’ve learned from certain men who have infiltrated the Church, men from Jerusalem, men with ardent “Law of Moses” leanings), a verb that means “to reverse course.” (The verb here is written in the present tense, active voice … meaning they were currently in the process of turning, of their own volition too!)

Wow!

But again, what do the adjective describe, to what are they turning?

Paul uses the rare word “elements,” spelled stoicheion,” which means “any first thing … from which a whole sequence of other things derive.” (As in our ABC’s! Or our 123’s!)

Things which the Galatians now should be “over.”

God had given them better things!

It’s like a 10th grader wanting to go back into Kindergarten! 

But what are these “elements?”

I believe they are the 613 commandments of the Law, the Law of Moses!

One reason I hold this view is that in the next verse (Galatians 4:10) Paul rebukes his little flock for following or observing “days, and months, and times, and years.” Sabbaths and Festivals and Circumcisions (on the 8th day of a little boy’s life) and Jubilees, etc.

That’s the Law, or in integral part of it!

Don’t misunderstand me.

We present day Believers in Jesus must live holy, godly lives. But the Holy Spirit is the “Sheriff” Who directs us in this noble endeavor! Not Moses and his legislation!

We now live for Jesus not because we are FORCED to do so (via the Law) … but because we LOVE our Lord and WANT  to so behave (via the impulses of the Holy Spirit)!!! 

Need anything else be said?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Yes, the Law of Moses is “weak.” It has no power to save a lost soul from Hell!

And yes too, the Law of Moses is “beggarly,” so impoverished it can add nothing beneficial to a Christian’s life, not one who is enjoying the riches of God’s amazing Grace!

Thank God today for GRACE!