“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!

 

 

Today’s Text is lengthy, the Verse we’re going to study.

For that reason, I have opted to discuss its first line today, then more tomorrow morning.

Galatians 4:9 … “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?”

Paul is so burdened about these fairly new Christians in Galatia. Most of whom have trusted Christ under Paul’s ministry. Or at least … he was the founding Pastor of those congregations. (Galatia is a whole area or district, not just a single city … thus several Churches are involved, included.)

The Apostle fears these folks are about to “leave” a strict adhering to the Grace of God and go back to something less!

Now, watch this truth unfold: “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God …” Today’s clause.

Here are two ways of expressing one’s relationship with God! (I know Him … and … He knows me!)

And this delightful state is one which the Galatians were enjoying at that very moment, as Paul penned those words around two thousand years ago. That’s the significance of the adverb “now.”

“But NOW, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God …”

As I’ve said before … there’s here no doubt in Paul’s mind here that the Galatians are really saved, genuine born-again children of God!

They NOW know God!

Through Jesus Christ His Son!

Listen to the Lord Jesus define eternal life in John 17:3, as He prayed. “And this is life eternal, that they might know (“ginosko” in Greek) thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

And our Text?

“But now, after that ye have known (“ginosko” in Greek) God, or rather are known (“ginosko” again) of God …”

Wow, same verb in both places!

Yes, the Galatians have been redeemed, indeed!

They “have known” God, their relationship with Him began somewhere in time past. (The verb is Aorist here, past tense.) The day they were “apprehended” of Christ, Paul would have later expressed it. The day they exercised faith in Jesus as God’s only begotten Son.

Do YOU know Him like that, dear friend studying with us here today?

Paul loves that word picture! Knowing God! Listen to him elsewhere: “For I KNOW whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12

But then, immediately, in today’s Text … Paul rephrases his wording!

It’s not just our knowing God!

It is God knowing us too!

This is the “balance” of salvation!

I know Him (I love Him) because He first knew me (first loved me)! See 1st John 4:9 … “We love him, because he first loved us.”

Or … remember Jesus’ first words to (and concerning) Nathaniel: “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, WHENCE KNOWEST THOU ME? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I SAW THEE. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, THOU ART THE SON OF GOD; thou art the King of Israel.” John 1:45-49

I know Jesus!

I know God!

But also … and Paul wants to express it this precise way, here emphasizing less the (wavering) Galatians and emphasizing more God (the never-wavering Faithful One) the Saviour: “But now, after that ye have known God, or RATHER ARE KNOWN OF GOD …”

He knows me!

Rejoice in 2 Timothy 2:19 … “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS.”

Wow!

Even Nahum writes: “The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; AND HE KNOWETH THEM THAT TRUST IN HIM.”

Jesus again, in John 10:14 as well: “I am the good shepherd, and KNOW MY SHEEP, and AM KNOWN OF MINE.” (The very same “balance” here!)

I know Him, as Saviour!

And He knows me, as one of His children!

What blessedness!

Let’s delight in this fact today, this truth.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Song of Solomon 2:16 nearly says the same thing, just worded differently. “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Hallelujah!

What lovely Balance!

 

Today’s Bible Text (Verse) is quite straightforward, really.

Yet it is also just a “piece” of the puzzle Paul is solving … as he reasons with his Galatian followers of Christ. It takes an overall view of our whole paragraph (not JUST today’s verse) to get the whole picture!

Nonetheless … “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.” Galatians 4:8

I believe this is a passing reference to the background out of which the Galatian believers were saved.

In essence Paul suggests … When you all were sinners, and heathen ones at that ….  (In the King James Version: “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God …”)

They regularly (naturally) did something back in those days … you served other gods, idols, fake deities! (” … ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.”)

The Apostle is now (nearly) implying that the Galatians now do know God! That they are saved indeed! (A possibility he really doubts a couple of times here in Galatians!)

So frankly, there is nothing surprising in this verse today. (In a way one could aver that ALL of us … before we “knew” the living God … served (as slaves) other man-made gods and goddesses! 

Sad but so!

Romans 6:16 illustrates the principle. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Everyone is either serving evil (meaning sin which leads to death) … or good (righteousness which is via the Blood of Jesus)!”

But overall, I think Paul (in today’s Text) is saying this to the Galatians:

Once when you were lost … you served idols.

But now you have been born-again … and are indeed free from those old entanglements!

Then WHY, WHY, WHY would you go back under a list of 613 commandments (both prohibitions and injunctions as contained in the Law of Moses) and serve them, spurning the true Liberty you now have in Jesus?

A logical question, a logical thought process … supremely so!

Tomorrow’s verse, the Lord willing, adds further clarity to this line of reasoning.

But at least we readers in the 21st century can pause and THANK GOD we no longer live according to the old ways, but have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus our Lord!

The very fact that we so “know” God is shouting ground!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Really, not a bad testimony … “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.” But now, things are different! Very much so!