An heir may be either one who is entering on his inheritance or one who is hereafter to enter on it. In a sense, the Christian inheritance is always future; heaven lies ahead. And the NT, with its strong eschatological background, felt the claims of the future more even than we do. Yet preceding ver... [ Continue Reading ]
The state of the Galatians, while heathen, was similar but worse. They had not been heirs in a state of temporary slavery, but frankly slaves to the mere element-spirits, those undivine gods they worshipped. If they now Judaize, they return to _the_ same slavery. To make the imperfect OT Law an ulti... [ Continue Reading ]
An affectionate paragraph, reminding the Galatians how he had conformed in every legitimate way (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 9:19 ff.) to their customs, and begging them not to desert his faith. In the past, he and they had been good friends. His humiliating illness (epilepsy according to Lightfoot, malaria... [ Continue Reading ]
GALATIANS 4:21 TO GALATIANS 5:1. The new thing he tries is an allegorising spiritualising application of an OT story. Slave-born Ishmael mocked (Genesis 21:10 *) free-born Isaac, and the son of the slave was righteously cast out. God means us to learn from this! Once more it is claimed that the OT s... [ Continue Reading ]