GALATIANS

Chapter 4

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STUDY:

  • In verses 1-7, Paul explains the term "heir" and explains that until a son is old enough to receive his inheritance, he is pretty much a slave. He relates this to us, that until we accept Jesus, we are enslaved to elementary thinking. We cannot comprehend the mysteries of Christ, because we have not received Him.  Once we accept Jesus, we become heirs and we receive an inheritance, starting with receiving the Holy Spirit and ending with eternal life and all it's blessings. Therefore, if you are in Christ, you are no longer a slave to the world, but an heir of Christ!

  • Paul tells the Galatians in verses 8-11 that if they return to Judiasm, they would be leaving God and following false gods and worldly principles and structures.  They have been set free through Christ and they would only be returning to enslavement of the world. 


    How many of us slip and return to our old ways? Remember: we have been set free in Jesus!  We should not abandon Him and return to our elementary ways, our worldly ways, our sinful ways- whatever you wanna call it.  Do you realize we leave our freedom and go back to enslavement?  If you were to be set free from prison- bound by shackles, would you willfully decide, hmmmm... I'm going to leave my free life and go back to prison, to be bound by shackles once more?? Doesn't that sound so foolish? Spiritual enslavement is so much more detrimental!  It involves our eternal direction- death or freedom!  It controls and directs all of who we are!  Choosing to go back to a physical prison would affect your comfort level, your food intake, your social life.  Choosing to go back to a spiritual enslavement affects your choices, your relationships, your bondage to sin, your ETERNAL life! If any of you have seriously struggled with something and have found deliverance and freedom and have truly repented- there is no WAY we would choose to go back to that enslavement!  Freedom in Christ is so much more than temporary comfort.  It is eternal freedom- and there is so much even in the word freedom.  Do not abandon Christ to return to your false gods, false identities and crippling enslavement. 


  • Paul reminds them of how much they were blessed by the knowledge and freedom in Jesus.  He also tells them that the false prophets flatter them so that they too will be flattered and create a false sense of belonging. 

  • Paul compares the contrasts of Sarah and Hagar. (Sarah was Abraham's wife who was old and barren, and Hagar was Sarah's servant.  Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham to carry their family line through her because of her unbelief that God wouldn't do what He promised. Hagar bore a son, Ishmael, and later, Sarah bore Abraham a son, Isaac. ~Genesis 16 & 21.) Here are the contrasts made by Paul in verses 21-31:

SARAH

  • Free woman
  • Son was Isaac
  • Conceived Isaac through a promise from God
  • Freedom
  • A new Jerusalem in heaven
  • Persecuted by Ishmael, as Christians are persecuted

HAGAR

  • Slave woman
  • Son was Ishmael
  • Conceived Ishmael through unbelief and sin
  • Slavery
  • Present Jerusalem
  • Persecuting
  • Non-Christians persecute Christians
Jesus came from Isaac's lineage, from the free woman.  Just as Isaac was born of a promise, so we are born of God's promise if we are saved through Christ. If we are born again in Jesus, spiritually, we can call ourselves Isaac's descendants too. Therefore, as it says in verse 31, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. 

HIGHLIGHTED TEXT:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.  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?
{Verses 8-9}

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