Galatians 4:1-31

May 20, 2018

Evening Service

Sean Higgins

Download the Kids’ Korner.

Or, Brothers from Another Mother

Sometimes metaphors get out of control, like riding a bike down a steep mountain when your front brakes seize and you flip over the handle bars and then the bike lands on your head. You get a story for sure, but you still wince a little every time you think about it.

Galatians 4 is full of metaphors, and there is a surprising amount of references to mothering. The first mention is not a metaphor, actually, it’s doctrine. Jesus was born of a woman, a statement that establishes the fact of His humanity, the state in which He took the curse of the law to redeem a people. This is fantastic news, but some of the Galatians were going back to previous ways and Paul calls himself a mother who was worried about how they were coming out. It wasn’t good. Then finally Paul refers to two flesh and blood mothers who represent two different spiritual families, and there isn’t quite enough appreciation for being brothers of another mother, the mother the Galatians were turning their back on. It’s a tall mountain of a chapter, and one needs to be careful on his way down.

The entire letter is an affectionate, motherly spanking for the foolish Galatians. They had been hanging out with some bad company, false teachers who simultaneously tried to make themselves look better than the Galatians while making the Galatians wish they could get in.

In chapter 4 Paul continues to argue for faith and promise against works and law.

Sons Not Slaves (verses 1-7)

At the end of chapter 3 Paul referred to the law as a guardian which was watching over the Jews until Jesus came. Now Paul adds another related idea. Even if you were a son, you didn’t have legal rights to the inheritance until you came of age. It was promised to you, but it wasn’t yours yet, you weren’t ready for it. During that time there is a sense in which the child, or maybe better translated the “minor,” is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. What makes the difference is the date set by his father.

Paul applies it to the Galatians. In the same way we also, were enslaved to the principles of the world. It’s surprising that he moves away from speaking about being enslaved to sin (3:22) or enslaved to the law (3:23-25) and instead to “the principles of the world.” He makes a similar comment in verse 8 about “those that by nature are not gods,” and also the “worthless elementary principles of the world” in verse 9, which appear to be related to days and months and seasons and years in verse 10. While he had been speaking of the Mosaic Law, I believe here is speaking of the pantheon of material and astronomical gods, many who were associated with the planets, which were believed to have personality and influence over the affairs of men.

In the same way that the law wasn’t enough, so also this false system of “how the world runs” wasn’t enough. What was necessary was a Savior. So, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus was God—“His Son,” Jesus was man—“of a woman,” Jesus was part of a particular family who had obligations to the Jewish system of worship—“under the law.” And Jesus came to redeem us and so that we might receive adoption as sons. He came to bring us into His family.

It’s a tight knit group. God not only sent Jesus, He has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. We have God dwelling in us, and we relate to Him intimately, crying, “Abba! Father!” Paul told the Romans something similar in Romans 8:15, that we “have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’.” All this makes us heirs through God, meaning that it is His work, not ours. So we are sons and heirs through God.

Sons of Anguish (verses 8-20)

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