8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain. 12 I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Gus Cameron

I was at a conference last weekend and the person giving the main Bible talks was a well-known pastor in Sydney. I’ve met him a few times over the years, so I know him, but I wasn’t sure if he’d remember me because he’s the kind of person who meets lots of people. But then when we passed each other in the crowed he said, “Hi Gus!”

It’s one thing to know someone, but it’s much more special to be known by them. As I read today’s passage, I was struck by how Paul can say that we are known by God – God knows each and every one of us! He knows us like a father knows his precious child, we are his sons and daughters.

If he knows us like that, how can we possibly forget him? Paul’s question is: can we serve other gods? Other worthless gods that do not and cannot know us, or love us? Serving other gods is slavery because they will never give us anything good, and they cannot care about us. If we serve an idol like so many shopkeepers in Cabramatta, we’ll be giving it our time and money, but never know if it will help us. If we serve the god of money, we’ll only ever want more and never have enough. But if we serve the one true and living God, we’ll have the eternal blessing of being his child.

Let’s never forget how good it is to be known by God. Pray that he’d help us by his Spirit to never turn back to worthless gods.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gus is one of our Assistant MInisters.