Galatians 4:10

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. HOWBEIT - contrast of their former with their present state. Appeal not to turn back from their privileges as free sons to legal bondage again. THEN - when ye were pagans before your adoption (Galatians 4:7). YE KNEW NOT GOD - not opposed to Romans 1:21. The pagan originally knew God, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works; but as a fact they knew him not, so far as His eternity, power as Creator, and holiness, are concerned. YE DID SERVICE, [ edouleusat...

10._Ye observe days_. He adduces as an instance one description of “elements,” the observance of days. No condemnation is here given to the observance of dates in the arrangements of civil society. The order of nature out of which this arises, is fixed and constant. How are months and years computed, but by the revolution of the sun and moon? What distinguishes summer from winter, or spring from harvest, but the appointment of God, — an appointment which was promised to continue to the end of the world? (Genesis 8:22.) The civil observation of days contributes not only to agriculture and to matters of politics, and ordinary life, but is even extended to the government of the church. Of what nature, then, was the observation which Paul reproves? It was that which would bind the conscience, by religious considerations, as if it were necessary to the worship of God, and which, as he expr

8-11 The happy change whereby the Galatians were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was the effect of his free and rich grace; they were laid under the greater obligation to keep to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. All our knowledge of God begins on his part; we know him because we are known of him. Though our religion forbids idolatry, yet many practise spiritual idolatry in their hearts. For what a man loves most, and cares most for, that is his god: some have their riches for their god, some their pleasures, and some their lusts. And many ignorantly worship a god of their own making; a god made all of mercy and no justice. For they persuade themselves that there is mercy for them with God, though they repent not, but go on in their sins. It is possible for those who have made great professions of religion, to be afte...

Verse 10. _YE OBSERVE DAYS_] Ye superstitiously regard the Sabbaths and particular days of your own appointment; _AND MONTHS_] New moons; _times_-festivals, such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, c. _YEARS._] Annual atonements, sabbatical years, and jubilees....

YE OBSERVE - The object of this verse is to specify some of the things to which they had become enslaved. DAYS - The days here referred to are doubtless the days of the Jewish festivals. They had numerous days of such observances, and in addition to those specified in the Old Testament, the Jews had added many others as days commemorative of the destruction and rebuilding of the temple, and of other important events in their history. It is not a fair interpretation of this to suppose that the apostle refers to the Sabbath, properly so called, for this was a part of the Decalogue; and was observed by the Saviour himself, and by the apostles also. It is a fair interpretation to apply it to all those days which are not commanded to be kept holy in the Scriptures; and hence, the passage is as applicable to the observance of saints’ days, and days in honor of particular events in sacred histo...

EXPOSITION GALATIANS 4:1 NOW I SAY (λέγω δέ). A form of expression usual with the apostle when introducing a new statement designed either to explain or elucidate something before said (of. Galatians 3:17; Galatians 5:16; Romans 15:8, according to the Received Text; 1 Corinthians 1:12. So τοῦτο δέ φημι, 1 Corinthians 7:29;...

YE OBSERVE DAYS, AND MONTHS, AND TIMES, AND YEARS. Lest the apostle should be thought to suggest, without foundation, the inclination of these people to be in bondage to the ceremonies of the law, he gives this as an instance of it; which is to be understood, not of a civil observation of times, divided into days, months, and years, for which the luminaries of the heavens were made, and into summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, which is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary; but of a religious observation of days, c. not of the lucky and unlucky days, or of any of the festivals of the Gentiles, but of Jewish ones. By "days" are meant their seventh day sabbaths for since they are distinguished from months and years, they must mean such days as returned weekly; and what else can they be but their weekly sabbaths? These were peculiar to the Israelites, and not binding on others; and...

Galatians 4:1. _Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons._ Like little children, the Jewish believers were under the law. They observed this ceremony and that, just as children, even though they may be heirs to vast estates, yet, while they are in their minority, are under tutors and governors. But now in Christ we have come of age, and we have done with those school-books and that tutorship, and we have received the adoption of sons. Now, we have joy and peace in belie

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Under the law in the state of minority. (Galatians 4:1)_ 2. The Son revealed to redeem. (Galatians 4:4) 3. Because ye are Sons; the Spirit of Sonship. (Galatians 4:6) 4. The backsliding Galatians. (Galatians 4:8) 5. The sons of the bondwoman and of the free woman. (Galatians 4:21) Jewish believers were, before Christ had died, the children of God, and as such they did not differ from servants. They were in a state of minority, as children who do not know the father's thoughts, nor cou

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 ultimate religious authority is to prefer nature-worship to Christ. Subordinate spirits, however over-ruled by God, instituted the Law. Here Paul comes nearer his great Gnostic follower Marcion than anywhere else; but, while Marcion hated the OT, Paul rejects only the Law, and rejects it only if it becomes a rival to the Gospel. His thought is delicately balanced on a knife-edge. In Rom., emphasis on the ceremonial (not _part_ but _aspect_ of the) Law disappears; it is viewed on its moral side as the law of God. In a later epistle, Col., the ceremonial again predominates. Galatians 4:9