The Book Of Galatians – Chapter 4:8-11 - Message 14 - Do Not Become Wallowing Sows In Bondage – Protect Your Freedom In Christ Series

THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 4:8-11 - MESSAGE 14 - DO NOT BECOME WALLOWING SOWS IN BONDAGE – PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM IN CHRIST

[PART A]

Galatians 4:8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods,

Galatians 4:9 but now that you have come to know God, or rather, TO BE KNOWN BY GOD, how is it that you turn back again to the WEAK AND WORTHLESS ELEMENTAL THINGS, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Galatians 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.

Galatians 4:11 I fear for you that perhaps I have LABOURED OVER YOU IN VAIN.

VERSE 8

In our previous study we saw that Paul had declared to the Galatians their high, privileged position as sons of God and our “Abba Father”. Then he went on to declare our position as heirs. They were all precious truths and obtained, not by turning back to the Law but through the grace of God lavishly given to us. The saints have obtained through the death and reconciliation of Christ, not only sonship; not only heirship; but an unfading inheritance.

He reminds them of their own origins so that he can reinforce the error they have entered into. They have come out of one bondage and are returning to another bondage. The Galatians knew the worthlessness of idolatry so now they are entering another worthlessness (not that the Law is worthless, but it is of no use for salvation).

VERSE 9

Now he moves to an extra argument to make them aware of their terrible position to which they had succumbed. These people had placed themselves into slavery, not under pagan gods as they once were but now under the Law; the slavery of the Law. He calls these items they were adopting, “weak and worthless elemental things”. By that he is going back to first principles and in the “religious world” that is going back to the Law.

The different translations try to define this term - “weak and bankrupt elemental forces” (Holman); “elementary principles” (ESV); “weak and miserable” (NIV); “weak and needy” (Darby). To return to what was superseded because of its failure, is a failure itself. For anybody wanting to put themselves under the Law that person has failed in the justification that is of God. There is a large religious group that is trying to impose that position on Christian people very similar to the Judiasers who were infiltrating the Galatian churches.

Paul uses a revealing phrase – “rather, to be known by God”. We should never forget that it was God who reached out to us, not the other way around. We would never have sought God on our own accord. Sin is so awful that it will run from God, not come for deliverance. To be enlightened by God and then to go back to what we were, is a terrible state. Peter in writing about that said this – {{2Peter 2:19-22 (describing these teachers coming along) “promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. If after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” AND, “A SOW, AFTER WASHING, RETURNS TO WALLOWING IN THE MIRE.”}}

Peter is speaking of a worse situation than what the Galatians were engaged in, but in broad strokes there is a shadowing of principles here. There is a warning to be steadfast in the faith; certain in doctrine and practice; and to remain true to the bible and not deviate from it. False teachers and imposters are rapidly on the rise. How are they to be combatted? The tools we have are the word of God itself, prayer, discernment, and alertness. We must acquaint ourselves with the agendas of these groups and be able to refute them on God’s word alone. The Galatians slackened off and lost the fight.

The Colossians had a similar problem – {{Colossians 2:20 “If you have died with Christ to the ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF THE WORLD, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”}}. Like the Galatians they had reverted to a different creed that they thought would enhance their Christian lives, but what they were doing was to put themselves into slavery or bondage to another system that would weaken and destroy their Christian standing. They had come from the bondage of idolatry as did the Galatians, and that is the elementary principles of the world. It was the world’s spiritual forces, and the poor and beggarly ordinances of religion. Add a bit of the Law; a bit of Gnosticism; bit of Eastern Religion . . .