Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
lest—Greek, "lest haply." My fear is not for my own sake, but for yours.
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?
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Galatians 4:11:
Galatians 3:4
1 Thessalonians 3:5
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