An Exploration of Galatians: Turning Back to Elemental Things
Galatians 4:8-11 - A Living Christ is not found through religion; the church must be focused on Him!
“However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 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? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
Galatians 4:8-11 NASB1995
This is truly getting interesting in this part of Galatians, knowing how ritualistic most churches are today. I’m sure a few toes will be stepped on by me in trying to understand these verses. Paul is first telling these churches that they were slaves to idols and rituals before they came to know God. From Wikipedia, here’s a brief summary of the rites and religious observances that were done in Ancient Rome to their gods and goddesses (many were probably adapted from the Greek customs) - links go to other Wikipedia articles and you can read the footnotes going back to the original article:
Roman calendars show roughly forty annual religious festivals. Some lasted several days, others a single day or less: sacred days (dies fasti) outnumbered "non-sacred" days (dies nefasti).[23] A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi("games", such as chariot races and theatrical performances), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia, and the Ludi Romani in honour of Liber.[24]Other festivals may have required only the presence and rites of their priests and acolytes,[25] or particular groups, such as women at the Bona Dea rites.[26]
So the Gentiles have now embraced God and their salvation in Jesus and these Roman/Greek observances are no longer practiced because they were done to honor false gods. But the Judaizers have come in to the fledging churches and they didn’t just want circumcision and other adherences to Mosaic laws to be adopted - they wanted the churches to embrace all of the law, including the ritual days, weeks, months and years. I found this example of Hebrew observances doing a quick internet search to help us remember the origins of those holidays:
I have some friends who spent a few years as Messianic Christians, trying to observe all of the OT Law while also following Jesus. These friends were victims of someone who said that the only true way to God was through these rituals and laws. They have since left that movement and are now in a non-denominational church (somebody probably read Galatians to them).
Paul is saying that these legalisms are a turn back to the “weak and worthless” elemental things or ABCs that were discussed in a previous devotional. Paul observed these holidays himself when he was a Pharisees and and did not find them evil in and of themselves, but doing something on our own and acting pious for a day or week or the 40 days of Lent is works-based, an attempt to curry favor from God by saying “look at me doing this”. I found a pithy commentary in Precept Austin by the late pastor Wayne Barber about these elemental things:
Now, as a former Pharisee, Paul identified with these very quickly. Because, remember, the deceiving people that had come amongst them were Judaizers, the Mosaic law, the ceremonial, etc. They had come to put this back on these Galatians, and the Galatians had foolishly bought it...many of those Pharisees had observed every one of those things during their lifetime. And yet they had no life in them whatsoever.
It’s like a lot of people today. They can come to church. They can give to the church. They can’t miss anything for a whole year. Back when I was growing up they had attendance pins and some people would trip over them as they walked through the door. They have never missed a time and they are spiritual, yet they are the meanest people in the whole church. It hadn’t done them any good. And that’s what he’s trying to say. You want to go back to that kind of thing? All these terms most likely fit the Judaizers, terms that they had deceived them with in their false doctrine.
These Galatians which Paul calls foolish, or as we could say stupid, had re-enrolled in the kindergarten of the law instead of graduating into the school of grace, learning what grace is and walking in that relationship with Him. We have to be careful when we deal with them, however, ‘cause every one of us, when we choose our flesh, have just done exactly the same thing. We love to measure what we do. “How many did you have at church last week?” “Well, we had this many.” “Well, we had this many.” “Oh, you’re more spiritual than we are.” And we tend to measure ourselves by the way the world measures us.
Brother Hession told me one time, he said, “Wayne, we are preaching the same message in England you are preaching over here. We are losing people; you are gaining people. Which one of us is doing it right?” And the point was well taken. When God does something you cannot measure. You don’t know exactly what He’s doing. You just let Him do it. But, you see, when we get back up under that mindset that’s what kills us. That’s what robs us of the intimacy of relationship we can have with Christ. But the utter foolishness of choosing to be a slave, the frustration; it’s not going to provide anything for us. There’s nothing divine in it with the flesh. But not only that, the foolishness of it, why would you choose to go back to something that offers you nothing? And then finally, the feat of choosing to be a slave.
What would Paul say now if he observed the attendance pins, the packed pews but only at Easter and Christmas, the elaborate decorations, the different “seasons” of the church, the ritual liturgical colors, the emphasis on feast days? What would he say about the secular, materialistic chaos that has taken over the Christmas season? What would he say about a church calendar that calls part of the year “ordinary days”? Are there ever any ordinary days when we are deepening our relationship with Christ? He is the Living Christ, NOW, not a specimen trapped in the amber of calendar events relating back to His time on Earth. When researching this passage, I found several commentators who said that these words of Paul actually belie the establishment of a Christian sabbath, the setting aside of a special day during the week for worship. I think that’s probably a bridge too far for most believers because of pure habit, but here are some wise words from Warren Wiersbe from his commentary on Galatians quoted in Precept Austin:
Does this mean that it is wrong for Christians to set aside one day a year to remember the birth of Christ? Or that a special observance of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, or the blessing of the harvest in autumn, is a sin? Not necessarily. If we observe special days like slaves, hoping to gain some spiritual merit, then we are sinning. But if in the observance, we express our liberty in Christ and let the Spirit enrich us with His grace, then the observance can be a spiritual blessing. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians are not to legislate religious observances for each other (Ro 14:4–13+). We are not to praise the man who celebrates the day, nor are we to condemn the man who does not celebrate. But if a man thinks he is saving his soul, or automatically growing in grace, because of a religious observance, then he is guilty of legalism. Our evangelical churches have many different kinds of observances, and it is wrong for us to go beyond the Word of God in comparing, criticizing, or condemning. But all of us must beware of that legalistic spirit that caters to the flesh, leads to pride, and makes the outward event a substitute for the inward experience.
WOW! Very profound words indeed!
We are not to praise the man who celebrates the day or condemn a man for not celebrating it. At the end of this passage, Paul fears for the Galatians, that he has labored over them in vain as they take these steps back into bondage. Here’s a tremendous commentary on this from Enduring Word:
In vain: At the end of this section, Paul set a choice before the Galatians and before us. We can have a living, free, relationship with God as a loving Father based on what Jesus did for us and who we are in Him. Or we can try to please God by our best efforts of keeping the rules, living in bondage as slaves, not sons. Living that way makes the whole gospel in vain.
A good example of this is John Wesley. Before his conversion:
He was the son of a clergyman and a clergyman himself.
He was orthodox in belief, faithful in morality, and full of good works.
He did ministry in prisons, sweatshops, and slums.
He gave food, clothing, and education to slum children.
He observed both Saturday and Sunday as the Sabbath.
He sailed from England to the American colonies as a missionary.
He studied his Bible, prayed, fasted, and gave regularly.
Yet all the time, he was bound in the chains of his own religious efforts, because he trusted in what he could do to make himself right before God instead of trusting in what Jesus had done. Later, he came to “trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation,” and came to an inner assurance that he was now forgiven, saved, and a son of God. Looking back on all his religious activity before he was truly saved, he said: “I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.”
True good works come from who we are in Him, from faithful obedience, loving and fearing Jesus, being eternally thankful to Him for Grace, and taking up our cross freely and following Him. They don’t come from religious activities, a sense of obligation (rather than gratitude), mental score charts (“I did this great thing so God has to love me more”), counting attendance pins, or admiring purple robe seasons in the church. As our pastor said in a recent sermon: Intimacy with God without fear leads to licentiousness; Fear of God without intimacy leads to legalism. Works don’t buy us Grace (only faith does that), but that Grace leads to crowns of glory in our sanctified lives.
My next devotional examines Galatians 4:12-16, Paul makes a personal plea to the Galatians.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I pray that I worship You and have faith in You that is the same every day, regardless of the day of the week or the season of the year, and that you are my first love, as I am your beloved daughter. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
The personal testimony of Bruce Hurt, creator of Precept Austin, can be found Here.