Galatians Chapter 4: *This may need to be trimmed or summarized.
Gal. 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; (KJV)
4:1 Now what I mean [when I talk about children and their guardians] is this: as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave even though he is the [future owner and] master of all [the estate]; (Amplified Bible)
Gal. 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
4:2 but he is under [the authority of] guardians and household administrators or managers until the date set by his father [when he is of legal age].
A. IN the ancient world the process of growing up was much more definite than it is with us. (v. 1-2)
1. In the Jewish world, on the first Sabbath after a boy had passed his twelfth birthday, his father took him to the Synagogue, where he became A Son of the Law. The father thereupon uttered a benediction, “Blessed be thou, O God, who has taken from me the responsibility for this boy." The
boy prayed a prayer in which he said, "O my God and God of my fathers! On this solemn and sacred day, which marks my passage from boyhood to manhood, I humbly raise my eyes unto thee, and declare with sincerity and truth, that henceforth I will keep thy commandments, and undertake and bear the responsibility of mine actions towards thee.” There was a clear dividing line in the boy's life; almost overnight he became a man.
2. In Greece a boy was under his father's care from seven until he was eighteen. He then became what was called an ephebos, which may be translated cadet, and for two years he was under the direction of the state. The Athenians were divided into ten phratriai, or clans. Before a lad became:
ephebos, at a festival called the Apatouria, he was received into the clan; and at a ceremonial act his long hair was cut off and offered to the gods. Once again, growing up was quite a definite process.
3. Under Roman law the year at which a boy grew up was not definitely fixed, but it was always between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. At a sacred festival in the family called the Liberalia he took off the toga pretexta, which was a toga with a narrow purple band at the foot of it and put on the toga virilis, which was a plain toga which adults wore. He was then conducted by his friends and relations down to the forum and formally introduced to public life. It was essentially a religious ceremony. And once again there was a quite definite day on which the lad attained manhood. There was a Roman custom that on the day a boy or girl grew up, the boy offered his ball, and the girl her doll, to Apollo to show that they had put away childish things. When a boy was an infant in the eyes of the law, he might be the owner of a vast property but he could take no legal decision; he was not in control of his own life; everything was done and directed for him: and, therefore, for all practical purposes he had no more freedom than if he were a slave; but when he became a man he entered into his full inheritance. (Barclay)
Gal. 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
4:3 So also we [whether Jews or Gentiles], when we were children (spiritually immature), were kept like slaves under the elementary [man-made religious or philosophical] teachings of the world.
A. we—
1.the Jews primarily, and inclusively the Gentiles also. For the "we" in Ga 4:5 plainly refers to both Jew and Gentile believers. The Jews in their bondage to the law of Moses, as the representative people of the world, include all mankind virtually amenable to God's law (Ro 2:14, 15). Even the Gentiles were under "bondage," and in a state of discipline suitable to nonage (the period of immaturity or youth), till Christ came as the Emancipator. (JFB)
2. The word translated “elements” is peculiar. The simpler word from whence it is derived means “a row.” Hence the derivative is applied to the letters of the alphabet, because they were arranged in rows. Thus it came to mean the “elements” or “rudiments” of learning, and then” elements” of any kind. The older commentators on this passage, for the most part, took it in the special sense of “the elements of nature,” “the heavenly bodies,” either as the objects of Gentile worship or as marking the times of the Jewish festivals. There is, however, little doubt that the other sense is best: “the elements (or rudiments, as in the margin) of religious teaching.” These are called “the elements of the world” because they were mundane and material; they included no clear recognition of spiritual things. The earlier forms of Gentile and even of Jewish religion were much bound up with the senses; the most important element in them was that of ritual. The same phrase, in the same sense, occurs twice in the Epistle to the Colossians. (Ellicott)
B. were in bondage—as "servants" (Ga 4:1).
C. under the elements—or "rudiments"; rudimentary religion teaching of a non-Christian character: the elementary lessons of outward things (literally, "of the [outward] world"); such as the legal ordinances mentioned, Ga 4:10 (Col 2:8, 20). Our childhood's lessons. Literally, The letters of the alphabet (Heb 5:12). (JFB)
Gal. 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
4:4 But when [in God’s plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law,
A. the fulness of the time—namely, "the time appointed by the Father" ; God does nothing prematurely, but, foreseeing the end from the beginning, waits till all is ripe for the execution of His purpose. Had Christ come directly after the fall, the enormity and deadly fruits of sin would not have been realized fully by man, so as to feel his desperate state and need of a Savior. Sin was fully developed. Man's inability to save himself by obedience to the law, whether that of Moses, or that of conscience, was completely manifested; all the prophecies of various ages found their common center in this particular time: and Providence, by various arrangements in the social and political, as well as the moral world, had fully prepared the way for the coming Redeemer. God often permits physical evil long before he teaches the remedy. The smallpox had for long committed its ravages before inoculation, and then vaccination, was discovered. It was essential to the honor of God's law to permit evil long before He revealed the full remedy. (JFB)
B. sent forth—Greek, "sent forth out of heaven from Himself" [Alford and Bengel]. The same verb is used of the Father's sending forth the Spirit (Ga 4:6).
C. his—emphatical. "His own Son." Not by adoption, as we are (Ga 4:5): nor merely His Son by the anointing of the Spirit which God sends into the heart
D. made of a woman—"made" is used as in 1Co 15:45, "The first man, Adam, was made a living soul," Greek, "made to be (born) of a woman." The expression implies a special interposition of God in His birth as man, namely, causing Him to be conceived by the Holy Ghost.
E. made under the law—
1. "made to be under the law." Not merely as Grotius and Alford explain, "Born subject to the law as a Jew." But "made" by His Father's appointment, and His own free will, "subject to the law," to keep it all, ceremonial and moral, perfectly for us, as the Representative Man, and to suffer and exhaust the full penalty of our whole race's violation of it. This constitutes the significance of His circumcision, His being presented in the temple (Lu 2:21, 22, 27; compare Mt 5:17), and His baptism by John, when He said (Mt 3:15), "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (JFB)
2. Made under the law - In subjection to it, that in him all its designs might be fulfilled, and by his death the whole might be abolished; the law dying when the Son of God expired upon the cross.
Gal. 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
4:5 so that He might redeem and liberate those who were under the Law, that we [who believe] might be adopted as sons [as God’s children with all rights as fully grown members of a family].
A. To redeem them - ??a???as??? To pay down a price for them, and thus buy them off from the necessity of observing circumcision, offering brute sacrifices, performing different ablutions (a ceremonial act of washing parts of the body or sacred containers), etc., etc. (Adam Clarke)
B. That we might receive the adoption of sons –
1. Which adoption we could not obtain by the law; for it is the Gospel only that puts us among the children, and gives us a place in the heavenly family. On the nature of adoption (Adam Clarke)
2. Receive - The Greek implies the suitableness of the thing as long ago predestined by God. "Receive as something destined or due" (Lu 23:41; 2Jo 8). Herein God makes of sons of men sons of God, inasmuch as God made of the Son of God the Son of man [Augustine on Psalm 52]. (JFB)
Gal. 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
4:6 And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”
A. And because ye are sons - As a consequence of your being adopted into the family of God, and being regarded as his sons. It follows as a part of his purpose of adoption that his children shall have the spirit of the Lord Jesus. (Albert Barnes)
B. The Spirit of his Son - The spirit of the Lord Jesus; the spirit which animated him, or which he evinced. The idea is, that as the Lord Jesus was enabled to approach God with the language of endearment and love, so they would be. He, being the true and exalted Son of God, had the spirit appropriate to such a relation; they being adopted, and made like him, have the same spirit. The "spirit" here referred to does not mean, as I: suppose: the Holy Spirit as such; nor the miraculous endowments of the Holy Spirit, but the spirit which made them like the Lord Jesus; the spirit by which they were enabled to approach God as his children, and use the reverent, and tender, and affectionate language of a child addressing a father. It is that language used by Christians when they have evidence of adoption; the expression of the warm, and elevated, and glowing emotions which they have when they can approach God as their God, and address him as their Father. (Albert Barnes) When baptized by the Holy Ghost, Jesus received it without measure. We received a saving portion to allow us to be sons of God.
C. Crying - That is, the spirit thus cries, ??e??µa Pneuma - ??a´??? krazon). In Romans 8:15 it is, "wherewith we cry." (Albert Barnes)
D. Abba, Father - See the note at Romans 8:15 (The spirit that binds you; or the spirit of a slave, that produces only fear. The slave is under constant fear and alarm. But the spirit of religion is that of freedom and of confidence; the spirit of children, and not of slaves; ). It is said in the Babylonian Gemara, a Jewish work, that it was not permitted slaves to use the title of Abba in addressing the master of the family to which they belonged. If so, then the language which Christians are here represented as using is the language of freemen, and denotes that they are not under the servitude of sin. (Albert Barnes)
Gal. 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave (bond-servant), but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through [the gracious act of] God [through Christ].
A. Wherefore - In consequence of this privilege of addressing God as your Father. (Albert Barnes)
B. Thou art no more - You who are Christians.
C. A servant - In the servitude of sin; or treated as a servant by being bound under the oppressive rites and ceremonies of the Law;
D. But a son - A child of God, adopted into his family, and to be treated as a son.
E. And if a son ... - Entitled to all the privileges of a son, and of course to be regarded as an heir through the Redeemer, and with him. See the sentiment here expressed explained in the note at Romans 8:17 – “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
One characteristic of the son is that he is his father’s heir. So it is with the Christian. He, too, has an inheritance—an inheritance of glory which he will share with Christ. But he must not be surprised if, before sharing the glory, he also shares the sufferings. (Ellicott)
Gal. 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
4:8 But at that time, when you did not know [the true] God and were unacquainted with Him, you [Gentiles] were slaves to those [pagan] things which by [their very] nature were not and could not be gods at all.
Howbeit — ???a, but, or however, that ye Gentiles may not foolishly reject, neglect, or forfeit your privileges, as the sons of God, you ought to remember what your condition was while under the elements of the world, and compare it with your present happy state: that then, when ye knew ( to have seen or perceived, hence to know) not the one living and true God, ye did service — Performed many degrading, burdensome, irrational, and abominable acts of worship and service, unto them which by nature are no gods — “This is a true description of the idols worshipped by the heathen, for either they had no existence, being mere creatures of the imagination; or, if any of them existed, they were dead men, or evil spirits, or the luminaries of the heavens, [or other creatures of God, as most of the idols of Egypt were,] deified by human folly: and being destitute of divine perfections, they were utterly incapable of bestowing any blessing whatever on their worshippers.” (Benson)
Gal. 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
4:9 Now, however, since you have come to know [the true] God [through personal experience], or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are turning back again to the weak and worthless elemental principles [of religions and philosophies], to which you want to be enslaved all over again?
A. after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God
1. Definition: to come to know, recognize, perceive Usage: I am taking in knowledge, come to know, learn; aor: I ascertained, realized.
2. The word rendered ‘known’ is different in the original from that so rendered in Galatians 4:8. It here denotes more than the acknowledgment of God’s existence—a discernment of His character and recognition of His authority, on the part of man; approval on the part of God. The same English word is used in 1 Corinthians 13:12 to render a still stronger verb in the Greek of which the margin of R.V. gives ‘fully know’ as the equivalent. (Cambridge Bible)
B. Weak and beggarly
1. Definition: (of one who crouches and cowers, hence) beggarly, poor Usage: poor, destitute, spiritually poor, either in a good sense (humble devout persons) or bad.
2. They are ‘weak’, powerless to give life (Hebrews 7:18 “For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.”); ‘beggarly’ (rather, ‘poor’) as contrasted with ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’, the riches of that grace which came by Jesus Christ. (Cambridge Bible)
C. elemental things
1. Definition: one of a row, a letter (of the alphabet), the elements (of knowledge) Usage: (a) plur: the heavenly bodies, (b) a rudiment, an element, a rudimentary principle, an elementary rule.
2. ”Elements” is used here, in the same sense as in Galatians 4:3, of that elementary religious knowledge afforded in different degrees to Jew and Gentile before the coming of Christ. These are called “weak” because they were insufficient to enable man to work out his own salvation. (Ellicott)
Gal. 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years
4:10 [For example,] you observe [particular] days and months and seasons and years.
A. Ye observe days –
1. Ye superstitiously regard the Sabbaths and particular days of your own appointment; (Adam Clarke)
2. To regard the observance of certain days as in itself meritorious as a work, is alien to the free spirit of Christianity. This is not incompatible with observing the Sabbath or the Christian Lord's day as obligatory, though not as a work (which was the Jewish and Gentile error in the observance of days), but as a holy mean appointed by the Lord for attaining the great end, holiness. The whole life alike belongs to the Lord in the Gospel view, just as the whole world, and not the Jews only, belong to Him. But as in Paradise, so now one portion of time is needed wherein to draw off the soul more entirely from secular business to God (Col 2:16). (JFB)
B. And months - New moons; times - festivals, such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, etc. (Adam Clarke)
C. Years - Annual atonements, sabbatical years, and jubilees. (Adam Clarke)
Gal. 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
4:11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored [to the point of exhaustion] over you in vain.
A. I am afraid of you –
1. Definition: to put to flight, to terrify, frighten Usage: I fear, dread, reverence, am afraid, terrified.
2. I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labor in your conversion have been thrown away.
3. I have fears respecting you. His fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle. They had been so easily perverted and turned back to the servitude of ceremonies and rites, that he was apprehensive that there could be no real Christian principle in the case. What pastor has not often had such fears of his people, when he sees them turn to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, or when, after having "run well," he sees them become the slaves of fashion, or of some habit inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel? (Barnes)
B. lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
1. He says not "I have labored in vain," but "lest," which is as much as to say, the wreck has not happened, but I see the storm big with it; so I am in fear, yet not in despair; ye have the power to set all right, and to return into your former calm. Then, as it were stretching out a hand to them thus tempest-tost, (Chrysostom)
2. Luther aptly says: Lacrimas Pauli hæc verba spirant [These words breathe the tears of Paul].
Gal. 4:12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
4:12 Believers, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I have become as you are [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [when I first came to you; do not do it now].
A. Become as I.—
1. The Apostle’s reprehension of their conduct naturally prepares the way for the admonition to a change of this. Yet he does little more than briefly indicate the exhortation, without continuing it, but goes on rather to make mention, with painful emotion, of his personal relation to the readers, as it had been and as it had now become.—The sense of the briefly expressed admonition is not quite evident: but probably=become like me in freedom from Judaistic observance; (Lange)
2. Paul makes not a theological but a personal appeal. He reminds them that for their sake he had become a Gentile; he had cut adrift from the traditions in which he had been brought up and become what they are; and his appeal is that they should not seek to become Jews but might become like himself. (Barclay)
B. for I am as ye are
In regard to the second, “two interpretations deserve to be considered:
1. ‘For I was once in bondage as ye now are.’ I once was a Jew, as ye now Judaize.
2. ‘For I abandoned my legal ground of righteousness, I became a Gentile like you.’ The latter sense is simpler grammatically, as it understands the same verb which occurs in the former clause, ‘because,’ not ‘was.’ It is also more in character with the intense personal feeling which pervades the passage. ‘I gave up all those time-honored customs, all those dear associations of race, to become like you. I have lived as a Gentile that I might preach to you Gentiles. (Lange)
C. Ye injured me in nothing.—The emphasis does not rest, on me, a mere enclitic in the Greek, as if implying that they had injured God and Christ. As the verb is aorist like those which follow, it seems best to refer this to that time of his first preaching. In that case the meaning “I have no personal grounds of complaint” (adopted by many from CHRYSOSTOM to LIGHTFOOT) is untenable. He begins with this clause to adduce their former treatment of him, as a reason for “becoming as he is.” The next clause is not strictly adversative. (Lange)
Gal. 4:13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
4:13 On the contrary, you know that it was because of a physical illness that I [remained and] preached the gospel to you the first time;
A. how through infirmity—
1. Definition: weakness, frailty Usage: want of strength, weakness, illness, suffering, calamity, frailty.
2. rather, as Greek, "Ye know that because of an infirmity of my flesh I preached," &c. He implies that bodily sickness, having detained him among them, contrary to his original intentions, was the occasion of his preaching the Gospel to them. (JFB)
B. at the first—literally, "at the former time"; implying that at the time of writing he had been twice in Galatia. His sickness was probably the same as recurred more violently afterward, "the thorn in the flesh" (2Co 12:7), which also was overruled to good (2Co 12:9, 10), as the "infirmity of the flesh" here.
Gal. 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
4:14 and even though my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not regard it with contempt, or scorn and reject me; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus Himself.
A. Through infirmity of the flesh....and your temptation in my flesh. St. Jerome thinks the apostle had some bodily infirmity upon him. St. John Chrysostom understands his poverty, and want, and persecutions, and that some were inclined to contemn him and his preaching on these accounts. Yet others among them did not esteem him less: they received him, respected him as an Angel of God, as Christ Jesus; they would have given him their eyes, as one may say, and all that was dear to them. He puts them in mind how happy then they thought themselves, and asketh why they are now so much changed? (Witham)
B. The disfigurement on the apostle's person, whatever it was, did not detain their attention; they did not, at least not long, occupy themselves with indulging their feelings of ridicule or disgust; their sense of it got to be soon absorbed in their admiration of the apostle's character and in their delight in the heavenly message which he brought to them. (Pulpit Comm.)
C. but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Their first feeling of aversion (dislike, hatred, loathing) from his personal appearance gave place to emotions of delight in his message of which he seemed as it were the embodiment, and of reverential love and gratitude to himself. His manifest absorption in the glad tidings he brought, and in love to his Lord, irradiating his whole being with his unbounded benevolence and gladsomeness as the messenger of peace was recognized by them with a response of unspeakable enthusiasm. (Pulpit Comm)
Gal. 4:15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
4:15 What then has become of that sense of blessing and the joy that you once had [from your salvation and your relationship with Christ]? For I testify of you that, if possible, you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me [to replace mine].
A. When they first received the gospel through Paul, oh how happy they were. How joyful, as their lives were transformed by the power of the Spirit. Now these men have come in and brought in these perverse teachings, brought them into a ritualistic relationship. Gone, have gone back to some of the weak and the beggarly elements. Tried to put them under regimen and a routine and a ritual relationship with God, rather than a living relationship with God. (Chuck Smith)
B. So, this is no doubt a hint towards what Paul’s weakness in his flesh was: an eye problem. Now in those days, they had some oriental diseases affecting the eyes, causing a constant kind of a pink eye condition, the running sort of conjunctivitis of which they had no cure. And so, it would affect the eyesight. It was repulsive to look at, and some believe that this is what Paul had. And yet, Paul says, you know, "You received me; you love me so much that some of you would have been glad to give your eyes, given your eyes to me." (Chuck Smith)
Gal. 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
4:16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
A. “Am I then become your enemy (an enemy in your eyes) by telling you the truth”? He plainly did not incur their enmity at his first visit, and the words here imply that he had since then, and before his now writing, incurred it: so that the occasion of his telling them the unwelcome truth, must have been at his second visit (Act_18:23. The fool and sinner hate a reprover. The righteous love faithful reproof (JFB)
B. How is it that you are so much altered towards me, that you now treat me as an enemy, who formerly loved me with the most fervent affection? Is it because I tell you the truth; that very truth for which you at first so ardently loved me? (Adam Clarke)
Gal. 4:17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.
4:17 These men [the Judaizers] eagerly seek you [to entrap you with honeyed words and attention, to win you over to their philosophy], not honorably [for their purpose is not honorable or worthy of consideration]. They want to isolate you [from us who oppose them] so that you will seek them.
The apostle is still carrying on the same design as in the foregoing verse, which was, to convince the Galatians of their sin and folly in departing from the truth of the gospel: having just before been expostulating with them about the change of their behavior towards him who endeavored to establish them in it, he here gives them the character of those false teachers who made it their business to draw them away from it, which if they would attend to, they might soon see how little reason they had to hearken to them: whatever opinion they might have of them, he tells them they were designing men, who were aiming to set up themselves, and who, under their specious pretenses, were more consulting their own interest than theirs: “They zealously affect you,” says he; “they show a mighty respect for you, and pretend a great deal of affection to you, but not well; they do it not with any good design, they are not sincere and upright in it, for they would exclude you, that you might affect them. That which they are chiefly aiming at is to engage your affections to them; and, in order to this, they are doing all they can to draw off your affections from me and from the truth, that so they may engross you to themselves.” This, he assures them, was their design, and therefore they must needs be very unwise in hearkening to them. Note,
1. There may appear to be a great deal of zeal where yet there is but little truth and sincerity.
2. It is the usual way of seducers to insinuate themselves into people's affections, and by that means to draw them into their opinions. 3. Whatever pretenses such may make, they have usually more regard to their own interest than that of others, and will not stick at ruining the reputation of others, if by that means they can raise their own. (Matt Henry)
Gal. 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
4:18 Now it is always pleasant to be eagerly sought after [provided that it is] for a good purpose, and not just when I am with you [seeking you myself--but beware of the others doing it].
It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. What our translation renders in a good man, and so consider the apostle as pointing to himself; this sense, they think, is favoured both by the preceding context and also by the words immediately following, and not only when I am present with you, which may be as if he had said, “Time was when you were zealously affected towards me; you once took me for a good man, and have now no reason to think otherwise of me; surely then it would become you to show the same regard to me, now that I am absent from you, which you did when I was present with you.” But, if we adhere to our own translation, the apostle here furnishes us with a very good rule to direct and regulate us in the exercise of our zeal: there are two things which to this purpose he more especially recommends to us: - (1.) That it be exercised only upon that which is good; for zeal is then only good when it is in a good thing: those who are zealously affected to that which is evil will thereby only to do so much the more hurt. And, (2.) That herein it be constant and steady: it is good to be zealous always in a good thing; not for a time only, or now and then, like the heat of an ague-fit, but, like the natural heat of the body, constant. Happy would it be for the church of Christ if this rule were better observed among Christians! (Matthew Henry)
Gal. 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
4:19 My little children, for whom I am again in [the pains of] labor until Christ is [completely and permanently] formed within you--
A. My little children
No one can fail to see the deep affection of the last words. “My little children”—diminutives of Latin and Greek always express deep affection. John often uses this expression but Paul uses it nowhere else; his heart is running over. We do well to note that Paul did not scold with bitter words; he yearned over his straying children. (Barclay)
B. He expresses his concern for them, and earnest desire of their welfare and soul-prosperity, by the pangs of a travailing woman: He travailed in birth for them: and the great thing which he was in so much pain about, and which he was so earnestly desirous of, was not so much that they might affect him as that Christ might be formed in them, that they might become Christians indeed, and be more confirmed and established in the faith of the gospel. From this we may note,
1. The very tender affection which faithful ministers bear towards those among whom they are employed; it is like that of the most affectionate parents to their little children.
2. That the chief thing they are longing and even travailing in birth for, on their account, is that Christ may be formed in them; not so much that they may gain their affections, much less that they may make a prey of them, but that they may be renewed in the spirit of their minds, wrought into the image of Christ, and more fully settled and confirmed in the Christian faith and life: and how unreasonably must those people act who suffer themselves to be prevailed upon to desert or dislike such ministers!
3. That Christ is not fully formed in men till they are brought off from trusting in their own righteousness, and made to rely only upon him and his righteousness. (Matthew Henry)
Gal. 4:20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
4:20 how I wish that I were with you now and could change my tone, because I am perplexed in regard to you.
As further evidence of the affection and concern which the apostle had for these Christians, he adds that he desired to be then present with them - that he would be glad of an opportunity of being among them, and conversing with them, and that thereupon he might find occasion to change his voice towards them; for at present he stood in doubt of them. He knew not well what to think of them. He was not so fully acquainted with their state as to know how to accommodate himself to them. He was full of fears and jealousies concerning them, which was the reason of his writing to them in such a manner as he had done; but he would be glad to find that matters were better with them than he feared, and that he might have occasion to commend them, instead of thus reproving and chiding them. Note, Though ministers too often find it necessary to reprove those they have to do with, yet this is no grateful work to them; they had much rather there were no occasion for it, and are always glad when they can see reason to change their voice towards them. (Matthew Henry)
Gal. 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
4:21 Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, do you not listen to [what] the Law [really says]?
A. After this emotional plea to win their hearts, from Gal 4:21 on he makes a new attempt to make them understand that they were doing wrong. Now he addresses their mind or understanding. In Gal 4:21 the word ‘law’ is used two times. The first time this word means a legalistic principle, something you impose on yourself as a law. You can impose yourself to keep the Ten Commandments. The second time, to listen to the law, ‘the law’ has a broader meaning. Here that word means the five books of Moses. You can see this in the example Paul is quoting from the law. (King)
B. do ye not hear—
1. Do you really understand what you’re doing? You that want a legal relationship to God, do you really understand what this entails? Do you really know what this means? (Chuck Smith)
2. do ye not consider the mystic sense of Moses' words? [Grotius]. The law itself sends you away from itself to Christ [Estius]. After having sufficiently maintained his point by argument, the apostle confirms and illustrates it by an inspired allegorical exposition of historical facts, containing in them general laws and types. Perhaps his reason for using allegory was to confute the Judaizers with their own weapons: subtle, mystical, allegorical interpretations, unauthorized by the Spirit, were their favorite arguments, as of the Rabbis in the synagogues. Paul meets them with an allegorical exposition, not the work of fancy, but sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. History, if properly understood contains in its complicated phenomena, simple and continually recurring divine laws. The history of the elect people, like their legal ordinances, had, besides the literal, a typical meaning. Just as the extra-ordinarily-born Isaac, the gift of grace according to promise, supplanted, beyond all human calculations, the naturally-born Ishmael, so the new theocratic race, the spiritual seed of Abraham by promise, the Gentile, as well as Jewish believers, were about to take the place of the natural seed, who had imagined that to them exclusively belonged the kingdom of God. (JFB)
Gal. 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman [Hagar] and one by the free woman [Sarah].
A. Abraham had two sons - Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham subsequently had several sons by Keturah after the death of Sarah. But the two sons by Hagar and Sarah were the most prominent, and the events of their lives furnished the particular illustration which Paul desired. (Barnes’ Notes)
B. The one by a bond-maid - Ishmael, the son of Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian slave, whom Sarah gave to Abraham in order that he might not be wholly without posterity; Genesis 16:3.
C. The other by a free woman - Isaac, the son of Sarah; Genesis 21:1-2
Gal. 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
4:23 But the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, while the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise.
A. But—Both were alike in being children of Abraham; they were unlike in that one was born naturally, the other by divine instrumentality. (Ellicott)
B. Was born—Strictly, is born—i.e., is stated to have been born, was born as we still read.
C. After the flesh—i.e., in the regular course of nature.
D. By promise—The birth of Isaac is regarded as due to the direct agency of the promise. The promise itself is conceived of as possessing a creative power. The birth of Isaac was the result of a miraculous intervention. (See Genesis 18:10.)
Gal. 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
4:24 Now these facts are about to be used [by me] as an allegory [that is, I will illustrate by using them]: for these women can represent two covenants: one [covenant originated] from Mount Sinai [where the Law was given] that bears children [destined] for slavery; she is Hagar.
A. When we seek to interpret a passage like this we must remember that for the devout and scholarly Jew, and especially for the Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning; and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important. For the Jewish Rabbis a passage of scripture had four meanings. (1) Peshat, its simple or literal meaning. (2) Remaz, its suggested meaning. (3) Derush, the meaning deduced by investigation. (4) Sod, the allegorical meaning. The first letter of these four words-PRDS-are the consonants of the word Paradise-and when a man had succeeded in penetrating into these four different meanings he reached the joy of paradise!
It is to be noted that the summit of all meanings was the allegorical meaning. It therefore often happened that the Rabbis would take a simple bit of historical narrative from the Old Testament and read into it inner meanings which often appear to us fantastic but which were very convincing to the people of their day. Paul was a trained Rabbi; and that is what he is doing here. He takes the story involving Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac (Genesis, chapters 16, 17, 21), which in the Old Testament is a straightforward narrative and he allegorizes it to illustrate his point. (Barclay)
B. Which things are an allegory -
1. They are to be understood spiritually; more being intended in the account than meets the eye. (Clarke)
2. Allegory, from a????, another, and a???e?, or a???e??, to speak, signifies a thing that is a representative of another, where the literal sense is the representative of a spiritual meaning; or, as the glossary expresses it, e?te??? ?ata µetaf?as?? ????µe?a, ?a? ?? ?ata t?? a?a???s??? "where the thing is to be understood differently in the interpretation than it appears in the reading." Allegories are frequent in all countries, and are used by all writers.
3. It is very likely, therefore, that the allegory produced here, St. Paul had borrowed from the Jewish writings; and he brings it in to convict the Judaizing Galatians on their own principles; and neither he nor we have anything farther to do with this allegory than as it applies to the subject for which it is quoted; nor does it give any license to those men of vain and superficial minds who endeavor to find out allegories in every portion of the sacred writings, and, by what they term spiritualizing, which is more properly carnalizing, have brought the testimonies of God into disgrace. May the spirit of silence be poured out upon all such corrupters of the word of God!
C. For these are the two covenants – These signify two different systems of religion; the one by Moses, the other by the Messiah. (Clarke)
D. The one from the Mount Sinai - On which the law was published, which was typified by Hagar, Abraham's bond maid. (Clarke)
E. Which gendereth to bondage - For as the bond maid or slave could only gender - bring forth her children, in a state of slavery, and subject also to become slaves, so all that are born and live under those Mosaic institutions are born and live in a state of bondage - a bondage to various rites and ceremonies; under the obligation to keep the whole law, yet, from its severity and their frailness, obliged to live in the habitual breach of it, and in consequence exposed to the curse which it pronounces. (Clarke)
Gal. 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
4:25 Now Hagar is (represents) Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
A. For this Agar is mount Sinai — That is, is a type of that mount. The whole of that mountainous ridge in Arabia Petrea, of which Sinai was a part, was called Horeb, probably on account of its excessive dryness. It was called by Moses, the mountain of God, (Exodus 3:1,) because on it God gave the law to the Israelites. (Benson)
B. And answereth — Namely, in the allegory; or resembles, Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage —
1. As being in subjection to so many ritual observances, and under a sentence of wrath on the commission of the least willful offence, and as being also in bondage to the Romans (Benson)
2. And is in bondage with her children.—The true reading is, for she is in bondage with her children. Jerusalem is, as it were, personified, so that “with her Children” means “all who are dependent upon her”—the Jewish system and all who belong to it.
Gal. 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
4:26 But the Jerusalem above [that is, the way of faith, represented by Sarah] is free; she is our mother.
A. Jerusalem which is above.—The ideal or heavenly Jerusalem. (Comp. Hebrews 12:22, “Ye are come to . . . the heavenly Jerusalem;” Revelation 21:2, “the holy city, new Jerusalem.” This “new” or “heavenly” Jerusalem is the seat or center of the glorified Messianic kingdom, just as the old Jerusalem had been the center of the earthly theocracy. The conception of the “heavenly Jerusalem” among the Jews, like the rest of their Messianic beliefs, took a materialistic form. It was to be a real but gorgeous city suspended in mid-air, “three parasangs” (11¼ miles) above the earthly city. Sometimes it is regarded as the exact copy of its earthly counterpart, and at other times as forming a perfect square. (Comp. Revelation 21:16.) No such materialistic notions attach to the idea as presented by St. Paul. “Jerusalem which is above” is to him a spiritual city, of which the Christian is a member here and now. It is part of the Messianic kingdom, to the whole of which the Apostle gave an ideal character. He could not but do so, seeing that the kingdom began with the coming of its King, though there was no earthly and visible realization of it. The Christian “conversation” (or, rather, commonwealth, the constitution that he was under) was “in heaven,” while he himself was upon earth. (See Philippians 3:20.) (Ellicott)
B. Which is the mother of us all.—The true reading is, undoubtedly, which is our mother, omitting “all.” The heavenly Jerusalem was the metropolis of Christianity, just as the earthly Jerusalem was the metropolis of Judaism. (Ellicott)
Gal. 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
4:27 For it is written [in the Scriptures], “REJOICE, O BARREN WOMAN WHO HAS NOT GIVEN BIRTH; BREAK FORTH INTO A [joyful] SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR THE DESOLATE WOMAN HAS MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.”
A. Rejoice, thou barren.—The quotation is from Isaiah 54:1. It has reference, in the first instance, to the restoration of the exiled Jews to Jerusalem and to the coming greatness of the newly-settled city. Though at present it is desolate and in ruins, it shall become greater and more populous than ever it had been in its best days before. The revived theocracy under Zerubbabel is naturally taken as a type of the final theocratic reign of the Messiah. The representation of the theocracy under the figure of marriage is common, both in the prophetic writings and in St. Paul.
B. Thou barren that bearest not.—This was originally spoken of the revived condition of Jerusalem, in which for a long time no children had been born. Here it is applied to the despised and persecuted condition of the early Church.
C. Break forth—i.e., into singing. The phrase is expressed in full in the Authorized version of Isaiah 54:1.
D. The desolate. . . . she which hath an husband.—In the original, Jerusalem after the exile, opposed to Jerusalem in the time of its prosperity under David and Solomon; in the typical application, Sarah, who had long been barren, as opposed to Hagar, whose marriage had been fruitful; in the anti-typical application, the new dispensation, Christianity, with its small beginnings, as opposed to the old dispensation, with its material possessions and privileges.
Gal. 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Benson)
4:28 And we, [believing] brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children [not merely of physical descent, like Ishmael, but are children born] of promise [born miraculously].
A. Now — That I may apply what has just been advanced to ourselves;
B. we, brethren — Who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles;
C. as Isaac was — ?ata ?saa?,
D. after the manner of Isaac; are children of promise — Are children of God, being children of Abraham and Sarah, by the promise which made him the father, and her the mother, of nations. In other words, we are children, not born in a natural way, but by the supernatural power of God; and as such, we are heirs of the promise made to believing Abraham. And, “if believers, after the manner of Isaac, are children begotten to Abraham by the divine power accompanying the promise, can it be doubted that they were typified by Isaac, and that his procreation was deferred till the bodies of his parents were dead as to these things, that being supernaturally begotten, he might be a fit type of those who by divine power become the seed of Abraham, through faith.”
Gal. 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
4:29 But as at that time the child [of ordinary birth] born according to the flesh persecuted the son who was born according to [the promise and working of] the Spirit, so it is now also.
A. But — Indeed the parallel holds further still; for as then,
B. he that was born after the flesh — That is, Ishmael, in whose production there was nothing beyond the common course of nature, and who was related to Abraham by natural descent only;
C. persecuted him who was born after the Spirit — That is, Isaac, who was produced by the special energy of God’s miraculous power;
D. even so it is now — The carnal Jews, who are the seed of Abraham after the flesh, abuse and persecute us who believe in Christ, and are therefore Abraham’s seed after the Spirit. Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac consisted in his mocking at the feast of his weaning, Gen_21:9. “No doubt he pretended that by right of primogeniture he was his father’s heir, and therefore he ridiculed the feast made in honor of Isaac as the heir, together with Sarah’s laying claim to the whole of the inheritance for her son. This action was typical of the contempt with which the Jews, Abraham’s natural posterity, would treat his spiritual seed, and their hopes of salvation through faith; typical also of the claim which the natural seed would set up, of being the only heirs of God, because they were first his people.”
Gal. 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
4:30 But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN [Hagar] AND HER SON [Ishmael], FOR NEVER SHALL THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN BE HEIR and SHARE THE INHERITANCE WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”
A. But what saith the Scripture — Showing the consequence of this?
B. Cast out the bond-woman and her son — Who mocked Isaac. Which sentence, however grievous it might be to Abraham, when pronounced by Sarah, God confirmed, and they were cast out of Abraham’s family. And so, as the apostle’s discourse implies, shall all who reject Christ, and seek justification and salvation by the law of Moses, notwithstanding their boasted descent from Abraham, be cast out of the church and family of God, and rejected from being his people; especially if they persecute them who are his children by faith; and they shall not be permitted to be heirs of his promise with them. So that, as in his birth and condition, his character and actions; so likewise in his being cast out of his father’s house, Ishmael was a fit type of the unbelieving and disobedient Jews.
Gal. 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
4:31 So then, believers, we [who are born again--reborn from above--spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose] are not children of a slave woman [the natural], but of the free woman [the supernatural].
A. So then — To sum up all;
B. we — Who believe;
C. are not the children of the bond-woman — Are not under subjection to the servile dispensation of the law, nor have anything to do with it;
D. but we are children of the free-woman — And have the privilege of being called into a state of liberty under the spiritual covenant of the gospel, being free from the curse and bond of the law, and from the power of sin and Satan.
We have here an ingenious specimen of a typical allegory. Paul represents Hagar (the slave and concubine) and Sarah (the mistress and lawful wife), with their sons, Ishmael and Isaac, as the types of two covenants, a covenant of law or bondage, and a covenant of promise or freedom. The contrast of the two mothers is reproduced in their two sons, and on a larger scale in two religions, the Jewish and the Christian. It is again repeated in the antagonism between the legalistic Jewish, and the evangelical Gentile Christianity. The points of contrast are as follows:— (Popular NT)
HAGAR AND ISHMAEL = JUDAISM. SARAH AND ISAAC = CHRISTIANITY.
The Old Covenant The New Covenant.
The Law. The Gospel (the Promise).
Natural Birth. Spiritual Birth.
Mount Sinai in Arabia. (Mount Sion in the Land of Promise?)
Earthly Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem.
Bondage. Freedom.
Persecuting. Persecuted.
Expulsion. Inheritance.
Paul takes that old story and allegorizes it. Hagar stands for the old covenant of the law, made on Mount Sinai, Sinai, which is in fact in Arabia, the land of Hagar's descendants. Hagar herself was a slave and all her children were born into slavery; and that covenant whose basis is the law turns
men into slaves of the law. Hagar's child was born from merely human impulses; and legalism is the best that man can do. On the other hand Sarah stands for the new covenant in Jesus Christ, God's new way of dealing with men not by law but by grace. Her child was born free—and according to God's promise—and all his descendants must be free. As the child of the slave girl persecuted the child of the free woman, the children of law now persecute the children of grace and promise. But as in the end the child of the slave girl was cast out and had no share in the inheritance, so in the end those who are legalists will be cast out from God and have no share in the inheritance of grace.
Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth. The man who makes law the principle of his life is in the position of a slave; whereas the man who makes grace the principle of his life is free, for, as a great saint put it, the Christian's maxim is, "Love God and do what you like.”
It is the power of that love, and not the constraint of law: that will keep us right; for love is always more powerful of his life is than law. (Barclay)
