Question: Would you be willing to lose a limb and live free or keep your body whole and live as a slave?

• This entire letter, Paul has reinforced his primary concern of church unity
  • Paul throws a curveball. He gives an example of when to divide people from the church, and not unite or invite them in
• Now, he addresses the question, “Unity at what cost?”

*Unity only matters if your united in freedom and in Christ

• Galatians 4:1-7, Paul tells the “New Exodus” story
  • We were slave to sin and the law
  • Christ has rescued us through His faithfulness
  • God sent His Spirit as He sent the Spirit in the wilderness

*Despite all this, the Galatian church, like the Hebrews, were tempted to go back into slavery

⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 

• Paul first speaks to the charge Jews had of gentiles, “They do not know God”
• Then, he reinforces the idea that they were slave to those things that are not God i.e. systems, forces, social or economic pressures, power-dynamics, etc.
  • In our culture, it’s the same as saying “you were slaves to Wall Street or Hollywood or social media”

⁹ But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces^[d]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 

• Roman pagans were very concerned about being “known by the gods”
  • All they did was an attempt that they could gain their attention
• If anybody thinks they know somebody, they don’t yet know in the way they ought to know. They only way you know, is if God knows you first (Also see 1 Corinthians 8:2-3)
  • We know love, because God loved us first
  • We know forgiveness because God forgave us first
• He is essentially saying, do you want to go back to Deuteronomy 27-29?

*Instead of turning to God, they want to turn to a system. Example: Bootcamp, dogmatics, “Diapers” from last study

Real Friends VS. Fake Friends

¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.¹² I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. ¹³ As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, ¹⁴ and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

• Here, we learn a lot about the heart of the Galatian church
• He says my “illness” i.e. “in my bodily weakness” he came to them
  • This is most likely due to the persecution, beating, and stoning’s he received sharing the gospel
  • Gentiles were just as superstitious about people with physical ailments
    • They believed you possessed evil spirits and would “ward you off” by spitting at you

*Paul says I suffered to bring the gospel to you in love, you returned love to me by how you treated me in my condition

 ¹⁵ Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

• Real Friends
  • Show genuine concern for one another
  • Have a friendship proven over time
  • Bless and Encourage each another
    • Paul blessed them by bringing the gospel, they blessed him in their hospitality despite trial
  • Mutually Suffer for one another
    • He loved them enough to suffer and bring the gospel to him
    • They would have given their own eyes to them
      • Notice he mentions his eyes…again, back to his conversion
  • Empathize and sympathize with each other
  • Tell each other the truth

*Apparently, the rival teachers not only charged Paul as a “people-pleaser,” but also as an “enemy” who is trying to corrupt and destroy the very gospel he brought them

¹⁷ Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 

• Bad Friends
  • Are selfish and self-serving
    • They don’t want you for you, they want you for them. It’s a self-serving relationship
  • Zealous BUT conditional to receive their fellowship
  • Its about winning, not about relationship
  • Divide you from others

¹⁸ It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. ¹⁹ My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰ how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

• Paul says that “I am suffering all over again for you”

The Climax

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 

• Paul is now going to use the very metric/measure they are advocating for and use it against them

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³ His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 

• How we understand this climax depends on how we understand the story of Sarah and Hagar
  • God promised Abraham an inheritance
  • Sarah, feeling defeated tells Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar
  • Abraham, instead of reaffirming God’s promise to Sarah, goes the way of the FLESH and sleeps with her servant who produces Ishmael
  • God is in faithfulness to his PROMISE gives Sarah a son named Isaac
  • On the day Isaac is weaned (matured), Ishmael mocks and laughs at him
  • Sarah tells Abraham to send the slave woman and son away for they will not receive the inheritance

²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

• Literally, Mount Sinai where Moses received the law was in Arabia
• Arabia was the land promised and inherited by Ishmael

*Side note: We always consider the “theology” around Isaac, but here we also see the promise of Ishmael. Christ would come through Isaac, but the Law that was good would come through Ishmael

 ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”^[e]28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^[f] 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

• Paul says just as Christ came through the child of promise, then the children of the Law that came through Ishmael should be thrown out and will not receive the inheritance

*Simply: Paul says just as Abraham tossed out the child of the flesh (the Law), throw out the teachers of the flesh and live free! Confront them as Paul confronted Peter!

*Jesus taught the same thing! (In the context of adultery, Matthew 5:29-30)

Matthew 5:29-30

 ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

• Division should be avoided at most costs, but not all. Jesus says anyone that will lead you into slavery again should be “gouged out” and “cut off” from the body…even if it means your limping and divided

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

• Paul says we should be united in message, mission, and love…but also FREEDOM

*Ultimately, he says it is better for you to be divided and free in Christ than united in slavery

Questions for Guided Discussion

1. In Galatians 4, Paul now gives us an example of when, for the sake of unity, we must divide ourselves from people. Share an experience where your church divorced themselves from someone. Was it valid? Was it not valid? What about a time you divorced yourself from someone? Was it valid or not valid?

2. In 4:8-9, Paul asks why the Galatian church was wanting to go back to the systems and forces that once enslaved them. What are some modern systems or forces we like to retreat to?

3. In 4:10-20, Paul gives us a history of his friendship and love for the Galatian church. He reveals what Godly friendship looks like and what toxic friendship looks like. After reading that, what do your friendships look like now? Are they Godly or toxic? Do you suffer for your friends? Do you tell your friends the truth even when its unpopular? Do your friends do the same for you?

4. Read Genesis 21:8-10, what strikes you about this story with Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac? How does this story, in the context of your own life, focus your heart closer the promises of God?

5. Both Jesus and Paul teach it is better to be wounded but free than fully complete but in slavery. No matter how unpopular, inconvenient, or painful, if there was one thing that the church could do now to live more free in Christ, what would it be?