Gal 4:22-28 | KingComments | STEP | . In an emotional argument Paul tries to make clear to the Galatians how mistaken they were. He had brought them the truth of the gospel, not to connect them to himself but to the Lord Jesus. They had embraced the gospel and received it in their hearts. How grateful they were then. But now other people had come. They had told the Galatians that Paul deceived them with his gospel. Those others were well aware of the law and God’s commandments of the Old Testament. They said that Paul concealed that from them and that Paul didn’t seek the best for them. He wasn’t their friend but their enemy. Is this really so, Paul said, that I told you the truth by which you are saved and then I become your enemy? Everyone who wants to minister the truth will experience what is happening to Paul here. When you teach the doctrine of Paul, it will be accepted gratefully as a commandment from God, especially by people who can find an answer to their need in this doctrine. But if someone dislikes that doctrine, it can be used to try to turn people against the teacher. Take, for example, Paul’s teachings about the silence of women in the meeting: he has subsequently been called a woman hater, although it is a commandment of God as well ( ). . Then Paul points the Galatians to the false teachers and the way they behave. They come and bring a different gospel that Paul didn’t preach; neither did the ones who were with him ( ; ). And the Galatians paid attention to that gospel willingly. The false teachers were allowed to spout their ideas and these people were diligent! But, Paul says, beware of the fact that they bring a separation between us. Their intention is that you commit yourselves to them. Paul is trying to make the Galatians understand, that, while he had sought their spiritual welfare, the false teachers had in mind to make them followers of themselves. They were like the pharisees, who were traveling all over the country to convince people of their doctrine. Then they could boast of a great number of followers. The Lord Jesus speaks the ‘Woe’ to them ( ). . Now certainly there is a good kind of zeal, for example the kind of zeal the Lord Jesus showed. He was zealous for the honor of God’s house ( ). It seems that the Galatians showed this good zeal during the time Paul was with them. It would have been great if they had also continued to do so during his absence. . But no, Paul felt how the Galatians had departed “from the simplicity … to Christ” ( ). Again, that caused him the pain and trouble he had experienced when he preached the gospel to them. In his spirit he experienced again the sufferings he had endured in his struggles to win the souls of the Galatians. At that time it was to deliver them from the slavery of idols. Now it was to deliver them from the legalistic and outward religion of the Jews. Paul compares himself with a mother. How important are motherly feelings when you see that a believer is inclined to deviate. Only with such feelings it is possible to win the other. What a touching proof of his love for them this is: he could afford to suffer again the “labor” in birth. He wants to do everything possible to win them back and bring them back to the unmixed gospel. He appeals to them as “my children”. How this must have touched their hearts. His only goal was that “Christ is formed” in them. Through the influence of legalism the image of Christ was disappearing more and more from the Galatians. All that a man wants to do in his own strength to serve God is detrimental to the image of Christ in his life. . Their deviation from the truth had given him a sense of perplexity. How he would love to be with them! How he would love to speak to them with more love – although this letter was exactly a clear expression that he loved them dearly. . After this emotional plea to win their hearts, from on he makes a new attempt to make them understand that they were doing wrong. Now he addresses their mind or understanding. In 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’ means the five books of Moses. You can see this in the example Paul is quoting from the law. . He brings forward Abraham, whose history is written in Genesis. Paul mentions Abraham, because the false teachers also mentioned him to emphasize their demand that the Galatians should be circumcised. Paul introduces his example with “for it is written”. Thereby he focuses attention on the authority of the Scriptures (cf. ). Then he points to Isaac and Ishmael and their mothers, whose names he doesn’t mention. It is not about their names, but about their positions, because that is what the mothers transmit to their children. . After having discussed the position he points to the origin of both sons. Ishmael was born by a self-willed action of Abraham, but Isaac he received by God’s promise. The spiritual lessons to be drawn from this by Galatians, and by us, are discussed in the following verses. Now read Galatians 4:16-23 again. Reflection: Have you ever been concerned about the spiritual development of someone else? What do you think you can do for such a person?

‏ Galatians 4:22-28

Again in Labor

Gal 4:16. In an emotional argument Paul tries to make clear to the Galatians how mistaken they were. He had brought them the truth of the gospel, not to connect them to himself but to the Lord Jesus. They had embraced the gospel and received it in their hearts. How grateful they were then.

But now other people had come. They had told the Galatians that Paul deceived them with his gospel. Those others were well aware of the law and God’s commandments of the Old Testament. They said that Paul concealed that from them and that Paul didn’t seek the best for them. He wasn’t their friend but their enemy. Is this really so, Paul said, that I told you the truth by which you are saved and then I become your enemy?

Everyone who wants to minister the truth will experience what is happening to Paul here. When you teach the doctrine of Paul, it will be accepted gratefully as a commandment from God, especially by people who can find an answer to their need in this doctrine. But if someone dislikes that doctrine, it can be used to try to turn people against the teacher. Take, for example, Paul’s teachings about the silence of women in the meeting: he has subsequently been called a woman hater, although it is a commandment of God as well (1Cor 14:34 ; 37).

Gal 4:17. Then Paul points the Galatians to the false teachers and the way they behave. They come and bring a different gospel that Paul didn’t preach; neither did the ones who were with him (Gal 1:8-9; 2Cor 11:4). And the Galatians paid attention to that gospel willingly. The false teachers were allowed to spout their ideas and these people were diligent! But, Paul says, beware of the fact that they bring a separation between us. Their intention is that you commit yourselves to them.

Paul is trying to make the Galatians understand, that, while he had sought their spiritual welfare, the false teachers had in mind to make them followers of themselves. They were like the pharisees, who were traveling all over the country to convince people of their doctrine. Then they could boast of a great number of followers. The Lord Jesus speaks the ‘Woe’ to them (Mt 23:15).

Gal 4:18. Now certainly there is a good kind of zeal, for example the kind of zeal the Lord Jesus showed. He was zealous for the honor of God’s house (Jn 2:17). It seems that the Galatians showed this good zeal during the time Paul was with them. It would have been great if they had also continued to do so during his absence.

Gal 4:19. But no, Paul felt how the Galatians had departed “from the simplicity … to Christ” (2Cor 11:3). Again, that caused him the pain and trouble he had experienced when he preached the gospel to them. In his spirit he experienced again the sufferings he had endured in his struggles to win the souls of the Galatians. At that time it was to deliver them from the slavery of idols. Now it was to deliver them from the legalistic and outward religion of the Jews.

Paul compares himself with a mother. How important are motherly feelings when you see that a believer is inclined to deviate. Only with such feelings it is possible to win the other. What a touching proof of his love for them this is: he could afford to suffer again the “labor” in birth. He wants to do everything possible to win them back and bring them back to the unmixed gospel. He appeals to them as “my children”. How this must have touched their hearts.

His only goal was that “Christ is formed” in them. Through the influence of legalism the image of Christ was disappearing more and more from the Galatians. All that a man wants to do in his own strength to serve God is detrimental to the image of Christ in his life.

Gal 4:20. Their deviation from the truth had given him a sense of perplexity. How he would love to be with them! How he would love to speak to them with more love – although this letter was exactly a clear expression that he loved them dearly.

Gal 4:21. 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’ means the five books of Moses. You can see this in the example Paul is quoting from the law.

Gal 4:22. He brings forward Abraham, whose history is written in Genesis. Paul mentions Abraham, because the false teachers also mentioned him to emphasize their demand that the Galatians should be circumcised.

Paul introduces his example with “for it is written”. Thereby he focuses attention on the authority of the Scriptures (cf. Mt 4:4 ; 7 ; 10). Then he points to Isaac and Ishmael and their mothers, whose names he doesn’t mention. It is not about their names, but about their positions, because that is what the mothers transmit to their children.

Gal 4:23. After having discussed the position he points to the origin of both sons. Ishmael was born by a self-willed action of Abraham, but Isaac he received by God’s promise. The spiritual lessons to be drawn from this by Galatians, and by us, are discussed in the following verses.

Now read Galatians 4:16-23 again.

Reflection: Have you ever been concerned about the spiritual development of someone else? What do you think you can do for such a person?

Children of the Bondwoman or of the Free Woman

Gal 4:24. What Paul said in Gal 4:21-22 “is allegorically speaking”. It means that this history has a deeper meaning than you would think at first glance. When the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write down this history, He did it just because of that deep meaning. In 1 Corinthians 10 you find the same and also in Romans 15 (1Cor 10:6 ; 11; Rom 15:4). Apart from that, the fact that Old Testament histories often have a deeper meaning doesn’t change the historical accuracy of the history itself.

What then is the deeper meaning Paul is quoting here? The two sons of Abraham “are two covenants”, that means, they represent two covenants. You can compare it with what the Lord Jesus says about the bread when He instituted the Supper: “This is My body” (Mt 26:26). That also means: ‘This represents My body’.

Gal 4:25. The one covenant, the first one, is the covenant that is made at Sinai. This is what Hagar reminds us of. Hagar was Abraham’s slave who gave birth to Ishmael. And because she was a slave, automatically Ishmael was a slave as well. Children get the position of the mother. At Sinai the law was given. That’s why the people of Israel came into bondage. Whoever puts himself under the law puts himself in the position of slave. The “present Jerusalem” [i.e. the earthly Jerusalem] is the center of the law and therefore “is in slavery with her children” [her children are the citizens].

If the Galatians therefore, or like so many Christians today, accept the law in their lives, it means that they accept Hagar as mother. They want to keep the covenant of Sinai and therefore declare themselves citizens of the earthly Jerusalem. Another character of Mount Sinai is, it says, that it is situated “in Arabia”. That emphasizes again, that whoever connects himself with this, connects himself with a place outside the land of blessing which is Canaan. Whoever connects himself with the law, will be deprived of every blessing in Christ (Gal 5:4).

Gal 4:26. After stating the position of Christians who wish to give the law a place again in the Christian's life, Paul moves on to the real “mother” of the Christian: the free, heavenly Jerusalem. It is the place God has given, from where His promises in grace are given and where the Christian is at home. This is his ‘mother-city’. Here he gets his education and his Christian character is formed. It relates to what is written in the letter to the Philippians: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20a). The big question today in professing Christianity is: By which mother are you being raised, or what is your mother-city?

Gal 4:27. Paul cites from Isaiah 54 (Isa 54:1) to show what it means to belong to “the Jerusalem above”. This verse is originally meant as a comfort for Israel after a time of being dominated by foreign powers. It is a song of joy at the beginning of the millennium, when God has accepted His people – that is the remnant – again into His favor after they have confessed their sins in humility to God. Then they will be free to enjoy everything that God has prepared for them.

Paul uses this event and the time it will happen as an application for the Christian in the present time. There, where there was nothing to be expected from human efforts and where there was only unfruitfulness, God performed a wonder in His grace and brought people to repentance. Like Isaac, the Galatians and all Christians are born in a supernatural manner. For the Christian it means that he is born “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13).

The amazing thing about this quotation from Isaiah is also that all Christians belong to the Jerusalem that soon will be the center of the millennium. The present Jerusalem is not related to God. It is illustrated as the sent away woman because of her unfaithfulness (cf. Hos 1:6 ; 8-9). As mentioned earlier, this situation will come to an end. Jerusalem will then look back to a time when she was not fruitful for God. But then she will see that in that fruitless period, God Himself has begotten a numerous posterity which He accounts to her.

In that time grace has made Jerusalem what God always had in mind: a city by which He can freely bless all people. It is the same grace by which He in these days has redeemed so many from the yoke of sin and has set them free.

Gal 4:28. Paul assumes that the Galatians went in the wrong direction only outwardly, but that they inwardly had not yet accepted the wrong teachings. He speaks to them as being convinced that at heart they were true children of God.

Gal 4:29. To this is connected a life by grace alone. To live that life consistently means persecution from people who want to serve God in their own strength. Persecution is inevitable because living by faith is one big indictment of any form of religion that emphasizes its own performance.

Gal 4:30. The blessing of God can never be obtained by a kind of cooperation between law and grace. Everything that has to do with the law cannot be allowed anymore in the life and the mind of a Christian. Unfortunately, many Christians do not heed this call. Many are in the hands of the ‘wrong mother’, so they are constantly in doubt about their relationship with God. The influence of Judaism in professing Christianity is clearly visible: everywhere you see sacred buildings, and a spiritual class is also maintained.

Gal 4:31. It all fits in with the “children of a bondwoman”, but not with the children “of the free woman” and that is what we are!

Now read Galatians 4:24-31 again.

Reflection: By which mother are you being educated?