We got off the aeroplane at Beijing airport and jumped into a taxi, giving the driver the details of our hotel in the centre of the city. After over half hour of driving, we assumed that we must be getting close to our destination. Except my mum looked out of the window and said “We’ve been passed that building before.” When we passed the building another time, we realised that the driver was simply going round in circles, taking advantage of the naïve foreigners to run up the clock. We thought we were making progress but were further away from where we needed to be.
The agitators in Galatia, the Judaizers claimed to be helping to lead people closer to God but in fact, they were not just taking them round in circles but taking them further away from God and godliness.
A look at the text (Read Galatians 4:8-20)
There is a shift at verse 8 from “we” where Paul includes himself and therefore Jewish believers along with the Gentile Christians to “you” indicating Paul is once again addressing the, primarily Gentile, Galatian believers specifically. Their previous slavery was to objects and beings that may have appeared or been presented as godlike but were in fact not gods at all. The reference here is to the elements and principles mentioned in verse 3 (v8). Such spiritual forces are in fact weak, powerless, dumb idols so why would the Galatians go back to them when they have met with the true and living God. This will be a return to the slavery they have escaped from (v9). Their route back to idolatry and slavery was ironically via the route which seemed to be a step forward in their new faith, by seeking to keep Torah rituals, specifically here the feast days (v10).
Paul is concerned that his efforts with them have been wasted (v11). He reminds them of the circumstances that led him to spend so much time with them, an illness which seemed to affect his eyesight. He reminds them that they had responded with compassion. Didn’t treat his illness as something to look down on and were ready to bless him in self-sacrificing, costly ways (v12-15). The suggestion here seems to be that the Judaizers were linking their message to the promise of blessing, and power, a kind of proto-prosperity Gospel that would fit with the problems Paul observed in other churches such as in Corinth. Now, he asks if they have turned against him personally as well as his message (v16).
The agitators are described as zealous, they have passion, remember that in Jewish tradition, going back to Phinehas that zeal was associated with righteousness but here their zeal is not for good, not for God’s glory. Their aim is to draw a following for themselves and by turning the Galatians away from Paul, to turn them away from the Gospel (v17-18(.
Paul too has zeal, he is passionate for the Galatians, like a mother in childbirth for her baby. His desire is a godly one, that they will be returned to the truth. This means that he reluctantly uses a stern tone with them but it is not something he wants to do (v19-20).
Digging Deeper
How could observance of Jewish Law, commandments given by God to his people through Moses be compared with pagan worship by Paul because that is what he seems to be doing here. Is, he, as some have suggested, and perhaps even at the time, he would have been accused of, suggesting that the Law itself is demonic? That suggestion seems unlikely for a rabbi like Paul. He has of course compared his own law observance to filthy rags and counted it as nothing but he has insisted that the Law itself is not bad but rather that the problem with it is that it is weakened by sinful human nature.
So, how then, if the Law was not in itself bad and was from God, could it be a route back not just into a slave like relationship to God but into paganism? Why does it risk landing the Gentile believers back in exactly the same place they were before their conversion and not in a slightly different place, not as Jewish law observers but as idol worshipping unbelievers?
It is possible that what the Judaizers have introduced in terms of ritualistic behaviours is toxic to the Gentile Christians because they mentally and emotionally associate those ritualistic performances, the fasting and feasting, the cutting of flesh etc with the rituals and practices of their past religion.[1] Certainly Neil Martin in his recent monograph “Galatians Reconsidered” argues that the agitators may have been well intentioned and that encouraging the observation of such rituals may not have been harmful to mature believers who properly grasped the significance of the rituals.[2] However, the problem with this take, is that Paul very clearly does not see it in such terms. He does not see the agitators as well intentioned but rather motivated by selfish desires. Indeed, the implication would be that the things they were seeking to impose, in the way they were being imposed were harmful both to Jewish and Gentile believers alike, to mature and immature, weak and strong together.[3]
I think we can over-complicate things. The simple point is that the only way that we can relate to God is through the grace of the Gospel. Anyone who is outside of the Gospel, whether or not they are religiously devout and whether or not those beliefs are theologically orthodox is, from Paul’s perspective in the same situation. To Paul, there are only two categories, slaves or free. The agitators wanted to take the Gentile believers out of freedom and back to slavery.
A look at ourselves
As we get further into Galatians, we see that Christians are still called to holy living. We are meant to pursue godliness. We should not confuse the message of “free grace” with “cheap grace”. However, it is possible to impose burdens onto people for the sake of godliness which in fact because they turn people away from grace, take them backwards away from godliness. It’s important that we double check our teaching and expectations.
The crucial point is this. What motivates godliness? Where is the person’s heart? If they have the heart of a son or daughter of the king, then they will want to live that out, reflecting their Father’s image and character. If they do not have that heart, then imposing rules, regulations and rituals is not going to change anything.
It is important that we are alert to the risk that we can inadvertently take people backwards, through legalism into slavery. At the same time though it is also vital that we are alert to those who are intentionally seeking to manipulate, distort, control in order to draw people away from the Gospel to dependence on themselves. We need to be on the guard against false teachers. As we are seeing in Galatians, such people can appear to have appealing motives and can be very subtle. However, anything, no matter how minor, that adds to, takes away from or distracts from the message of grace is to be resisted.
[1] C.f. Martin, Galatians Reconsidered, 160-161.
[2] C.f. Martin, Galatians Reconsidered, 170-172.
[3] Whilst Martin argues that Paul uses similarly robust language about Peter’s actions and we do not consider Peter to have apostatized, even though his actions undermined the Gospel, there are clear differences. Peter seems to act out of fear of the agitators whereas, Paul is clear here in Galatians 4 that the agitators were operating out of malign motives. I would argue that he sees a willing and knowing intent to their message and methods that is not there with Peter.
Faithroots 