8But you, not then knowing God, were enslaved to ones not
being gods by nature, 9but now, knowing God (or rather being known
by God), how are you turning to the weak and beggarly basic principles to which
you are desiring to be enslaved once more? 10You are observing days
and months and seasons and years. 11I am afraid of you lest I have
labored in vain into you. 12Brethren I ask of you, become as I [am]
because [I became] as you [are].
You have not injured me at all. 13But
I know that I preached to you at the first through weakness of the flesh 14and
you did not treat me with contempt neither rejected my affliction in my flesh
but you accepted me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15Therefore,
where is your pronounced blessing? For I testify to you that, if [you had the]
power, you would have given to me, plucking out your eyes.
16Thus am I become
your enemy telling you the truth? 17They are not earnestly desiring
you rightly but they are wishing to exclude you that you might earnestly desire
them, 18and [it is] fitting to be zealous always in fitting things
and not only in my presence with you. 19My little children, for whom
I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you … 20and I was
wishing to be being present now with you and to change my voice because I am
perplexed with you.
I have found this string of verses very interesting. It is
very instructive both as a whole and also in parts.
As a whole, what we see is a very real and specific
application of I Cor 13:4-7, a love that is “patient and kind, seeks not its
own, always protects, always hopes, always perseveres.” Paul says, “You have
not injured me at all.” We could obviously say, “Oh yes they have!” But here we
are seeing a love that is overcoming judgment. Like Jesus Himself, though
nailed to a cross of their foolishness and ingratitude, Paul’s heart is saying,
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” He’s not taking it
personally, even though their offense against him is in fact quite personal.
I have to confess, this passage is deeply convicting to me.
My heart knows little of a love like this. I certainly enjoy “loving” people,
doing whatever I can for them, even sacrificing on their behalf; but what
happens when those same people, instead of accepting and appreciating that
“love” instead turn on me, accuse me and malign me? My heart naturally doesn’t
have “the time of day” for them. “Shake the dust from your shoes and move on,”
my angry selfish heart piously quotes. And maybe I should, but what about my
heart? Love always perseveres. Hmmmm. Mine certainly doesn’t. I noted early in
the book that it amazes me that God committed an entire book of Scripture to
confronting these foolish Galatians, that Paul wrote this entire 6-chapter letter
energetically trying to reclaim this errant church. I said then, I hope God
teaches me something that will help my own love be more like His. I can’t say
I’m any different yet, but the Holy Spirit in my heart is certainly calling me
to this Christ-like standard of love. I guess at this point, my conclusion is
that we are here talking about a love that truly is heart business, that is a fruit of the Spirit, not a “rule” I can
live out. I am praying, asking Him to in fact help me live this kind of love,
and as I face these very situations, I am grieving at my hard heart and trying
to let Him change me. But, again, I have to admit, such a love is “high, I
cannot attain unto it.” By the power of His indwelling Spirit, may the Lord
work His heart-changing miracles in this sinner’s heart!
Exegetically speaking this is another passage where the
Greek is challenging to translate. Verse 19 is actually an unfinished sentence while
the logic throughout this section seems abrupt and difficult. Concerning verse
19 Calvin notes, “The style is abrupt,
which is usually the case with highly emotional passages. Strong feeling, from
the difficulty of finding adequate expression, breaks off our words when half-uttered,
while the powerful emotion chokes the utterance …[Paul] is now so oppressed with
grief, that he almost faints from exhaustion without completing his sentence.”
Barnes notes regarding this section, “There
is great brevity in this passage, and no little obscurity, and a great many interpretations
given of it by commentators …” However, Barnes goes on to say, “The sense of the passage, however, it seems
to me, cannot be difficult”. And Eadie recommends, as always, the “obvious and simplest explanation” which can
be derived “without resort to grammatical torture, undue dilation, or remote
reference.” My translation offered above is very wooden as I’m trying to
leave it as literal as possible. But I think all of the major translations offer
reasonably good representations of the text, as Eadie says presenting the “obvious and simple.”
A couple of things that jump out at me in the text: Paul
asks them in v9, “How are you turning to
the weak and beggarly principles to which you are desiring to be enslaved once
more?” He specifically points out, “You
are observing days and months and seasons and years.” The obvious
understanding is that they are embracing the Jewish habit of observing the Sabbaths,
and new moons, and the various feasts (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles,
etc.). This is the very thing Paul addresses in Col 2:16, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat
or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a
Sabbath day,” and he goes on there to
explain in v17, “These are a shadow of
the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Once again, a person could take offense at
these OT-ordained practices being called “weak and beggarly elements”. But in
this new dispensation of the risen, victorious Messiah and the outpoured and indwelling
Holy Spirit, that is exactly what they are. They are the rules of the old
childish tutelage. A Spirit-indwelt NT believer would be perfectly free to
practice any one of these things if they wish, but only from the perspective of
a mature heir doing so within the freedom of living out their very real and
personal heart-relationship with God. The Galatians are practicing these things
legalistically, as if they are a
relationship with God. “Why in the world,” he asks, “would you grasp at the
shadow, when the reality stands before you?”
Who would hug at the shadow of their child
while the child themself stands before you? But that is exactly the absurdity
of legalism. Why clutch after rules to somehow define our relationship with
God, while as NT believers we are sitting in His very lap? Embrace Him! I would suggest the best place from
which to discern His will, the best place from which to discern what truly is
right and good and important, is to be found wrapped in His big arms with our
face buried in His big strong loving chest. When we’re close enough to hear His
beating heart, to feel the rise of fall of His breathing chest, so close He has
only to lean down and whisper in our ears, then, and only then, can we expect
to truly understand. And that is our place and our privilege as NT believers.
Why on earth should the Galatians, and why on earth should we settle for
anything less?
May my heart be filled with the reality of
Christ, not grasping after shadows! And may my relationship with Him help me
learn the kind of love that rises above and sees through to the need behind
people’s sometimes unloving responses.
He’s so awesome. “Nearer my God to Thee”.
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