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Galatians 4:9
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7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, aand if a son, then an heir of God2 through Christ.  

Fears for the Church

8 But then, indeed, awhen you did not know God, byou served those which by nature are not gods.  
9 But now aafter you have known God, or rather are known by God, bhow is it that you turn again to cthe weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?  
10 aYou observe days and months and seasons and years.  
11 I am afraid for you, alest I have labored for you in vain.  
12 Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. aYou have not injured me at all.  
13 You know that abecause of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.  
14 And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me aas an angel of God, beven as Christ Jesus.  
15 1What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.  
16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 They azealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.  
18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you.
19 aMy little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,  
20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

Two Covenants

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: athe one by a bondwoman, bthe other by a freewoman.  
23 But he who was of the bondwoman awas born according to the flesh, band he of the freewoman through promise,  
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
<< Galatians 4:8   Galatians 4:10 >>


Galatians 4:8-11

Appeal to them not to turn back from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again.

then—when ye were "servants" (Galatians 4:7).

ye knew not God—not opposed to Romans 1:21. The heathen originally knew God, as Romans 1:21 states, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew Him not, so far as His eternity, His power as the Creator, and His holiness, are concerned.

are no gods—that is, have no existence, such as their worshippers attribute to them, in the nature of things, but only in the corrupt imaginations of their worshippers (see on I Corinthians 8:4; I Corinthians 10:19-20; II Chronicles 13:9). Your "service" was a different bondage from that of the Jews, which was a true service. Yet theirs, like yours, was a burdensome yoke; how then is it ye wish to resume the yoke after that God has transferred both Jews and Gentiles to a free service?


 
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