Freedom – Week 8
Passage:
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Gal. 4:8-16).
Prayer:
Intro:
We are making our way through the book of Galatians – and just in case you are just joining us – throughout this book – Paul has been confronting this group of churches in a region known as Galatia – who are getting caught up with a wrong gospel rather than the right one – rather than the true one!
- They started out strong. They understood the gospel – they experienced freedom – they experienced fellowship with God – but shortly after Paul left – these false teachers – found their way into the church – and they began to preach a different gospel.
A theologian named Richard Lovelace talks about this twisted Christianity that Paul is talking about – that we get stuck in – that the Galatians were stuck in – and why it is so destructive and ultimately leads us away from God – Here’s the quote
“Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements are subconsciously radically insecure persons, much less secure than non-Christians, because of the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. they cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy, and other sin grow out from their fundamental insecurity.”
The Gospel Frees Us From Worldly Religion (8-11):
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. (8-11)
- He is talking to an ancient Gentile audience that before Christ – would have worshiped the Roman or Greek pantheon – gods like Zeus or Apollo or Artemis.
- back in this time – people believed that these gods had specific control over differing areas of their life – and if they wanted a specific portion of their life to go well – they had to appease and worship those specific gods
“The great and central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.” – Tim Keller
- the gospel has freed you from worldly religion.
But that’s not the only thing that it has done – The other thing that Paul emphasizes in this text -is that
The Gospel Frees Us to Love Others (12-16)
Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? (12-16)
- Paul here gets really personal – in a very theologically rich section – by referring back to the time that he spent with the Galatians – and reminding them of the love that they had had when Paul was around – that the gospel produced in them –
And the way Paul shows this is by referring back to how he was treated when he was with them when they first came to know Christ. The text says here that when Paul first arrived with them and was teaching them that he became sick – and it was a huge problem – and in fact the expectation was that maybe they would even move on from Paul because he was a burden –
- we don’t know exactly the nature of Paul’s sickness – some scholars think it was a eyesight malady – hence the reference here that Paul makes that “if it would have helped you would have GOUGED your own eyes out to give it to me.”
but we don’t know for sure what the sickness was that Paul had – and the identity of the sickness isn’t important
- what is important is that when Paul was with them for a large part of the time – he was deadweight – from a practical standpoint – Paul’s sickness was a HUGE trial for them.
- rather than rejecting Paul based on his outward appearance and the difficulty of his trial – he says you you did not scorn or despise me – he says you didn’t reject me – you held me up – you took care of me – in fact – you were so self-sacrificial that if you could have – and it would have helped – you would gouged out your own eyes and given them to me
You received me as if I was Jesus Himself – it was not advantageous for you to help me – and not only did you help me but you served with this love and compassion as if I was Jesus himself –
- See something the gospel does is that – if you let it – it changes the way you look at people
See what the gospel does – is that it has the power – to enable us to look at people – no matter the person – the way that Jesus looks at us.