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Sunday School Lesson
Freedom Is Not Easy (Galatians 4)
is threatening.
Perhaps this is a text for
many of our men in women that make prison their homes. Before the Greeks in Galatia knew God (before they became believers) they were slaves to pagan influences. Paul re- ferred to these false gods as not gods. There is only one true God (1 Corinthians
8:4-6).
They were turning back to the weak and miserable forces (we saw this expression in our lesson last week in Galatians 4:3). We might think of them as the ABCs of paganism. The Jewish regression had to do with observing special days and months and seasons and years.
Carving out sacred time to celebrate faith is one thing. But keeping festivals as a term of salvation is quite something else. Returning to paganism or Judaism bothered Paul. He felt as if he had wasted his min- istry (labored in vain) on the Galatians.
Freedom Is Frustrating | Galatians 4:12-16
One can feel Paul’s personal frustration with the Galatians. He pleaded with them
earnestly. The word translated plead means “to make a spe- cific request.” It is one of the words for prayer in the New Testament.
Paul prayed that the Gala- tians would experience total freedom in Christ like he en- joyed. Paul himself was once enslaved in Judaism (Philip- pians 3:4-6). But as one freed in Christ, he called the churches to become like him.
Paul took the churches back to when they were converted (Acts 13–14). Their reception of him as one freed in Christ was remarkable. Even though Paul referenced his illness, he mentioned that the Galatians received him like an angel or Jesus himself.
Their devotion to Paul was so strong they would have traded their good eyesight for Paul’s bad eyesight (see also Galatians 6:11). The Judaiz- ers had turned the people away from the apostle who had taught them the truth of free- dom in Christ. Of the making of rules there is no end, and Paul was frustrated that the Galatians seemed to want to go back to rules for the sake of rules.
Freedom Is Hard Work | Galatians 4:17-20
The easy road is rules. The
harder road is freedom.
Paul noted that the Judaizers had bad motives. They were trying to take undue advantage of the Galatians by stealing them away from Paul and free-
dom in Christ.
Paul commended zeal (pas-
sion, great energy). Zeal with knowledge is a wonderful thing. Zeal that creates unity is also good. But zeal without knowledge and zeal that is di- visive is terrible.
The last two verses of our text drip with emotion.
The real heart of the apostle Paul can be seen. These two verses are high watermarks in the passion of Paul. He ap- pealed to them tenderly (My dear children). Paul was like a mother in the pains of child- birth until Christ would be formed in them (see 1 Thes- salonians 2:7). Forming Christ in people is hard work, and sometimes it leaves us downright perplexed.
Both Paul and President Lin- coln, Dr. King and we the peo- ple know that freedom isn’t easy. But it is worth it.
Sunday is Abraham Lin- coln’s birthday. Were he still living he would be 208 years old. He was the 16th president of the United States and also was the Great Emancipator. He not only signed the docu- ment that freed Black people from slavery, he also saw the country through a terrible civil war.
Freedom is not easy. The birth of a new nation comes with a huge price.
Our lesson picks up where last week’s lesson left off. The churches in Galatia had their harmony and freedom threat- ened by people who felt com- pelled to have a “Jesus plus” faith (Jesus plus the Law, Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus special religious holi- days). But Jesus plus anything is a minus. Jesus alone is suffi- cient to save to the uttermost
(Hebrews 7:25).
Freedom Is Threatening |
Galatians 4:8-11
As odd as it sounds, there were some slaves in Paul’s day who were doctors and lawyers. They had sold themselves into slavery so others would take care of them. Freedom is threatening, and some people cannot handle it. The believers in the churches of Galatia were both Greeks and Jews and both were likewise threatened by Christian freedom. They were tempted to turn back to paganism or to their former re- ligion in Judaism.
Paul was upset and puzzled about this. (In fact, his angst about this is seen in all three sections of our text—verses 11, 12, and 20.) Why would people who were once en- slaved go back to slavery?
The answer is that freedom
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