An Appeal to Return

Galatians 4:8-20

Galatia was a Roman province where Paul founded churches in the Southern cities. The inhabitants were known as Galatians, whose ancestors were Celtic and migrated from what is now France. Before their Christian conversion, they were idol worshipers of non-existent pagan gods typically

In Galatians 4:8-20, Paul tries to counter the undermining by the Judaizers who had success getting people within the churches to fall back into the bondage of Judaism law (performance-based following Mosaic laws or Jesus Plus) and not faith alone, in Christ alone. And this backward step also excluded people, which contradicts the Gospel message Paul preached.

In verses 10-11, Paul notes the "weak and worthless elemental things…You observe days and months and seasons and years." He warns against legalistically observing the Jewish calendar as if the rituals and observances would curry favor with God or be required for salvation. It may have also been a warning about falling back into paganism idol worship of their past with non-existent, non-spiritual gods grounded in the naturalism of the world.

Paul then changes direction and discusses his illnesses and that the Galatians received him despite his infirmities and did not hinder his message about Jesus Christ nor their acceptance. He noted the blessings or happiness they enjoyed with Paul, and yet, some turned on him, lost their prior goodwill with him, and treated him as an enemy just because he was "telling you the truth." [v.16]

The Truth.

Paul used the same Greek word for 'truth' John used in his gospel, writing in his gospel that Jesus Christ is the source of Truth and that Jesus emphatically stated he was the Truth. Truth means real, factual, and genuine and correlates to a reality outside ourselves—a reality that leads to the source of all Truth in the incarnation of God — Jesus Christ.

C. S. Lewis, in works such as his novel, Till We Have Faces and essays about Middle Age poets, followed Paul's arguments that we are to work vertically upwards to God, who revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Central to Lewis's point and Paul's warning to the Galatians is our forgetting, ignoring, or diminishing the vertical aspect of spiritual life - the direction in life that can only encounter our Savior and the Truth of life. Instead one could be beholden to living a solely horizontal life grounded in materialism, the paganism and false gods of old, or the laws and ways of Jesus Plus that Paul admonished. And not grace alone, and faith alone solely in Jesus Christ, which leads to one's life being redeemed and reset.

Though perplexed, Paul used the affectionate phrase 'little children' in verse 19. He likened himself to a mother in labor because he suffered on the Galatians' behalf, wanting to rescue them from their backsliding and false doctrine and transform them into Christ. Paul sought to bring the Galatians back to the likeness of Christ, the goal of salvation and a sanctified life—a life Paul amplified we should all pursue.

-Dan Nickel