Old Habits Die Hard - Lesson 9

Galatians 4:8-20

Paul spends a brief moment addressing some of the Gentiles that were living with one foot in their new life in Christ and another foot in their old world culture.

·         v4:8 – 4:11 – Old habits die hard…

o   v8 – “enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.”  - Living by the law of the polytheist culture, following the rituals of idol worship.

o   v9 – “turn back again” – remember he’s talking to Gentiles that were once idol worshiping pagans.  Turning back again does not mean turning back to the “worthless elementary principles” of God’s law, but to the rules required for idol worship

o   v10 – “observe days and months and seasons and years” – again, keeping in context with the last 3 sentences and the audience he was writing to (Gentiles that were considering Jewish conversion).

§  Some use this verse to claim that Paul is talking about the Old Testament feasts.  When considering the main audience of his letter were Gentiles considering conversion to Judaism (circumcision) how would these Gentiles, formerly idol worshipers, go back to following the Feasts that God instructed in the Torah?  That wasn’t their upbringing so they wouldn’t go back to that.

§  They were going back to following the days and seasons celebrated within idolatry.  Since that was their upbringing, that’s the only thing that would make sense that they went back to. 

·         v4:12 – 4:20 – Reminding them they have inherit goodness within and to use that as a positive influence.

o   v12 – 16 – Paul’s reminder that they treated him well when he had some type of health problem.  Read in context and with the previous paragraph about returning to their old ways, this seems to be a positive reminder to them that they do have compassionate hearts.

o   v17 – 18 – “They make much of you” – “They eagerly seek you”

§  They in these two verses must be referring to the “they” of the community.  Because Paul was referring just previously, to returning to their old ways. 

§  My understanding here is that their old friends, family, community members, are seeking them out to draw them back to their old ways. 

§  Paul is reminding them to stand strong in their compassion and faith in Christ.  Their love will attract others to follow.

o   v19 – 20 – They’ve taken a step backward.  Paul writing “anguish of childbirth” is his way of saying, “Why do I feel like I have to start all over again in teaching you about God?  It seems so painful that you should be past this point by now, but I have to start all over again.”  The fact that they have taken a step backward confuses him after all they’ve been taught.

Have you ever seen someone that had changed their life to follow God, were excited, learning, and working so hard to be faithful and obedient?  Have you then seen that person fall away?  Maybe by just going back to hanging out with old friends, then missing church occasionally, then only coming to church occasionally, and eventually they are back to their old life.  We probably see it too frequently.  This is the very thing that Paul is addressing.  He has heard that some of the “new Gentiles” are keeping one foot in their old world, and one foot in the synagogue.