Galatians 4:8-20

Galatians 4:8–20 (ESV) — 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. 12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Intro:

Paul has already highlighted the beauty of grace and adoption - a spirit of joy in our hearts that cries our “Abba! Father!”But he is struck with how much the Galatians have changed, for the worse. They have lost their joy - Gal. 4:15 -- They have “turned back” to elementary principles, becoming slaves once more. He is “perplexed” (v.20) about the Galatians behavior and decisions. The question to them is this from v.9: “What’s the deal? Why have you turned from such rich joy to weak and worthless things? Do you want to be a slave?”

That’s a good question for us today. Look at where you are now and look back to where you have come from. Is there more joy now than before? Is there even more a sense of freedom and adoption? Do you richly enjoy crying out to God as your Abba! Father! Or, has your Christian life glazed over with joylessness? Do you lean more on your own understanding and place your daily confidence on yourself, your pedigree as a church member or longtime christian, on your wisdom, or reputation, or your record as a “good” person? When the Galatians received the gospel - this is recorded in chapters 13-14 in Acts - they received it with overwhelming delight. Remembering this, Paul asks in v.15, “what has become of your blessedness?” (That is, your happiness or blood-bought fellowship with God?)

We see this sometimes in our own churches, don’t we? Someone comes to Christ and their shame and guilt is shattered away - their bonds to sin are broken. They are filled with a sense of adoption and joy, but then they come to church, hop in a small group and hear the members pray with unceremonious formality. Or hear the preacher say explosive truths with little sign of the electric joy that they should bring. We grow up believers like the Pharisees who made converts into their own image, who trust not in grace but rather delight at their own reflection the mirror of self-righteousness. On commentator says it this way: “Guilt smothers joy, and obedience turns into a caricature of the Spirit-filled life. The fruit of the gospel is pickled in vinegar, and yet we wonder why we’ve lost our taste for it or why passersby prefer not to taste at all.”In fact, some churches look on those who are filled with joy and almost laugh, saying to themselves, “just wait, you’ll come down from cloud 9 and join the rest of us.” Listen closely to what I’m about to say: I know that the Christian life is not defined by 24/7 elation, and I am not saying that we put on a fake happy face all the time. What I am saying is that there is a real, genuine savor to our faith that screams belief! grace! gratitude! holiness! thanksgiving! mission! worship! Salt that has not lost its saltiness.

Listen to this rebuke from the Lord to the churches in Ephesus from Revelation ch.2: Revelation 2:2–7 (ESV) — 2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil (that’s good praise - good theology in practice), but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

Let’s ask ourselves that helpful question again as we look at today’s text:

Look at where you are now and look back to where you have come from. Is there more joy now than before?

3 Questions Paul Aks:

1) How Can You Turn Back?

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Before the knowledge of God you were enslaved - Elemental principles (or spirits). V.9 - they are weak and worthless. The method - v.10 - is observing days, months, seasons and years.That is, they are not free. The Galatians are enslaved to those who are not gods and the worthless spirits that they are slavishly obeying are manifested in their teetotalling observance to religious rituals. (Wiersbe: they abandon liberty for bondage, power for weakness, and wealth for poverty.)

Broader context: If you are not in Christ, when you didn’t or don’t know God, then you are enslaved. You might believe that you are free. You might believe that obeying Jesus is slavery, but but the appetite of your heart binds you. You may be choosing to do daily what you want to do, the problem is that what we want to do is wicked. Before God, we choose willingly and joyfully those things that are wrong with the world. Ephesians 2 calls us dead in our trespasses and sins. And Paul correctly alters our perspective: It’s not that we change by knowing, or figuring out, God, but by God, who when we look back, we see that it was him that knew us. It was Him that graciously made us alert to our shackles and the free grace that cost him so much.

So why, Paul asks, do you want to go back into slavery? Why do you want to shift your weight from standing completely on Christ where you are secure to standing on Christ + self-righteousness which is unstable and incarcerating?

Romans 8:15–17 (ESV) — 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV) — 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Why would you willingly turn back to something so worthless?

Illustration of Jacob and Esau:  Esau selling his birthright for stew. (Gen. 25; Heb. 12)

2) What has become of your blessedness?

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

Paul had been like them before: He was a Pharisee of Pharisee’s - Philippians 3:4–8 (ESV) — 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

They, and we, should become like Paul. He finishes his statement in Philippians 3 this way:

Philippians 3:8–11 (ESV) — 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul’s trial: Maybe something wrong with his eye - possibly due to sickness like Malaria. Bodily ailment brought the gospel to Galatia -- (Can this season be a time where the gospel goes to unique places because of sickness?)They did not despise him - like they often do to those who are suffering (their theology considered them cursed by God)They would have given them their own eyes. What happened to their radical love? Now they despise Paul question him. What happened to your blessedness? Legalism had killed their joy and their love.

3) Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Look at Acts 13&14 about how they initially received Paul’s gospel. An enemy because of truth:

Isaiah 30:9–13 (ESV) — 9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; 10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” 12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

The Judaizers made much of their converts - they used them. They really wanted to shut them out (exclusivity). We do not want to be a ministry that uses people. We will not buy them and we will not sell them a product. Baptism numbers are not our grist for the mill. Paul’s sarcasm: It’s good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I’m there with you (to my face). Paul is in anguish over them like a mother in labor pains. His painful desire is that Christ would be formed in the Galatians. Do we ever feel this way about the spiritual health of anyone in our lives?

Known by God: There is freedom. There is adoption. Holy days to God are not hellish. Put rightly, and in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Holy Days to God are always holidays for men.”

We should rest and feast and drink deeply on the sufficiency of Christ alone.

Illustration of the woman with the discharge of blood - the works of the physicians made things worse.