Seek First – Kingdom Focused Devotionals

“Where then is that sense of blessing you had?  For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me” (Gal. 4:15).

                Paul now poses a challenging question.  They had considered themselves blessed by Paul’s visit.  They had considered it a privilege that the great apostle had come to them with the message of the gospel.  Now Paul questions what happened to this sense of blessing and their obvious affection for him. 

                Paul reminds them of the happiness his visit had caused them.  Such was their affection for Paul that they would have plucked out their eyes for him.  Some argue that this passage indicates that Paul suffered from ophthalmia or some other eye disease.  It is certainly a possibility when you consider the smoky fires without chimneys and oil lamps common in Paul’s day.  We cannot argue this with certainty.  In many languages the “eye” is a symbol of the most precious possession as in our expression “the apple of my eye.”

                Paul wants them to consider what has transpired to cause them to move from affection to outright hostility.  What has changed?  The exchange of works for grace has greatly impacted all of life.  We sometimes forget that what we believe impacts our actions and attitudes. 

Prayer:  Father, help me to live with Biblical integrity.  Amen.

“But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loath, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself” (Gal. 4:13-14). 

                Paul now reminds them of their first encounter and thus reminds them of those events which they share in common.  He speaks of a bodily illness which actually led to his ministry among the Galatians.  While Paul does not give us sufficient details to be dogmatic, it seems likely that he is referring to an exhausted and weakened condition owing to persecution which is recorded in Acts 14. 

                Paul acknowledges that the Galatians could have despised him and thus refused to hear what he had to say.  Illness and adversity were often viewed by Jews and Gentiles alike as the disfavor of deity.  But rather from turning from him they received him as a messenger of God.  With flourish he adds that they had received him as they would have received Christ Jesus Himself.  In other words, they had received him as an authentic messenger of Christ.

                This positive early reception to Paul and his message makes it even more unthinkable they would be so easily moved from the message of grace to which they had responded.  Here Paul recalls both his behavior among them and the power of his gospel to encourage them to avoid the false teaching of the Judaizers. 

Prayer:  Help me always to remain true to the simplicity of the gospel.  Amen.

“I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.  You have done me no wrong” (Gal. 4:12). 

                This section from verses 12 through 20 have a personal and intimate charter to it.  He moves from contending and arguing to appealing based on love and loyalty.  He first challenges them to become as he is.  While Paul doesn’t further elaborate on this phrase, we are probably to understand it as a reference to the freedom in which he lives as opposed to the legalism of his former life as a Pharisee.    The Galatians should give up their legalism and become like him. 

                His appeal is given strength by his assertion that he has become as they are.  When Paul abandoned his claim to righteousness through works he had become like a Gentile.  He had turned his back on his religious system as a means of redemption.  Now that the Galatians had fallen into the hands of the Judaizers, they must reject their proud legalistic pretentions and become as he is. 

                The final phrase “you have done me no wrong” is somewhat abrupt but likely refers to his original stay among the Galatians.  That they treated him well and responded eagerly to his message.  In light of their kindness, the present attitude is both painful and inexplicable.

Prayer:  Father, I again thank You for my salvation based on Your grace.  Amen

“I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain” (Gal. 4:11).

                We hear something of the depth of Paul’s concern in this verse.  He fears that his mission work on their behalf has been bestowed in vain.  His concern is not so much the observance of days of worship or various religious activities.  In 1 Corinthians 16:2 he instructs the Corinthians about laying aside money on the first day of the week as an act of worship. 

                The issue at stake is the basis of one’s justification before God.  The question is “works” versus “grace” as the means of redemption.  These two are fundamentally irreconcilable.  If they do not choose grace then all of Paul’s labor on their behalf will prove to be futile. 

                The issue of redemption by grace based on faith is fundamental.  It is still the issue that I most often encounter when I have the opportunity to witness.  Many people today are still depending on their good works, church attendance, and religious activity.  Paul makes it clear that if salvation was based on works, man would boast in his own righteousness. 

Prayer:  I thank You for your saving grace.  Amen.

“You observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal. 4:10).

                Now Paul gives us a hint at one of the issues that shows the tendency to return to legalism.  The mention of days, months, seasons, and years speaks of ceremonial regulations, particularly holy seasons of Judaism.  Days refers to Sabbath days, the months to the days of the new moon, the seasons to the Jewish feasts, and the years to the Sabbath and jubilee years.  Some scholars debate whether the years were still being celebrated by the Jews in Palestine.  That question is of little consequence.  The point is that the Galatian believers were taking up the whole system. 

                Paul is not suggesting that believers shouldn’t worship on special days or pay attention to various holidays, he is attacking the whole system of legalism as a means of obtaining salvation or favor with God.  There are some people today who think they are going to go to heaven because they attend church or observe Christian holidays.  Some Christians become spiritually arrogant because they have memorized a certain number of verses or attended a certain Bible study.  While such matters may be tools to help us know God better, they are not the ends but only a means to knowing God. 

                Our good works and our religious observances must spring from a heart of love and commitment.  When we think they prove spirituality, we are falling into the trap of works religion. 

Prayer:  Help me to serve You with unalloyed joy.  Amen

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?” (Gal. 4:9).

                Paul can think of no justification for their behavior of returning to the law in light of the fact that they have come to know God.  In other words, they now know that God is in Christ revealing Himself to man so that man might know Him in an intimate way, described as sonship.  Even better, they are known by God.  The bond of sonship, enabling them to cry out “Abba! Father!” was not established by them but by God Himself.  He had desired to know them as His own and had chosen them in Christ Jesus to be sons and heirs. 

                What seems both incongruous and inexplicable to Paul is that they would now voluntarily place themselves back under the tyranny of the law.  This was not forced upon them.  On the contrary, they seem to be deliberately choosing slavery to sonship.  It is not as if they want to serve idols again but they want to subject themselves to legalistic stipulations.  They are in danger of returning to the “elemental things” (cf. 4:3) that were characteristic of their time in bondage.  They are “weak and worthless” because they provide neither firm ground nor personal intimacy with God. 

                Can you think of times when you are tempted to turn from grace to law?  Do you sometimes turn back to weak and worthless things rather than developing your relationship with God?

Prayer:  Father, forgive me when I neglect my time with You and turn to elemental things.  Amen

“However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods” (Gal. 4:8). 

                After soaring to the heights of sonship and the resulting inheritance, Paul once again returns to the point of departure which prompted the writing of the letter.  The Galatians are in danger of turning from the joy and freedom of sonship and returning to the slavery discovered in works of the law. 

                Before Christ, man did not know God and that led them to enslave themselves to “supposed deities” who are “no gods.”  While this reference to “no gods” may be primarily intended to be a reference to the idols of polytheistic paganism, it has broader significance.  When we do not worship the One True God, we will ultimately turn to gods of our own making which are, in truth, no gods at all.  These gods can be pride in our goodness (works of the law) or our gods of pleasure, but no matter what their identity they are “no gods.” 

                One can understand to a degree why someone who has no knowledge of The True God would turn to “no gods.”  But it is unspeakable to think that once one has experienced God and has been adopted as a son and made an heir, they would intentionally return to “no gods.”  This is the primary issue of the letter and a concern that perplexes and pains the Apostle Paul.  Are you ever tempted to abandon Christ and return to your former way of life?  If so, remember that there were and are “no gods.”

Prayer:  Father, help me to learn from the failures of others and to choose to remain faithful to You.  Amen.

“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal. 4:7).

                Slavery was a wide-spread phenomenon in the first century.  There can be little question that slaves were among the early converts to Christianity.  We are, of course, familiar with the story of Onesimus who became a believer under the tutelage of the Apostle Paul.  The letter of Philemon chronicles Paul’s appeal that Onesimus be considered a brother and be released from his slavery.

                In this case, Paul has already made the case that Jew and Gentile alike have been enslaved by their inability to obey the law.  As you read this section you will notice the linking of verses 6 and 7.  Because we are sons and thus have experienced the work of the Spirit in our hearts, we are no longer slaves but sons who have all the rights of an heir.  This thought returns us to the subject of 3:29 where Paul speaks of the inheritance guaranteed to Abraham.  Both Jew and Gentile alike are heirs of the inheritance guaranteed to Abraham as he responded in faith to God’s promise.

                Have you ever inherited anything?  It is quite a humbling experience.  You know that you have done nothing to earn or deserve that which came through inheritance.  This is true when it comes to our redemption and resulting sonship.  Thank God!

Prayer:  We thank You for making me an heir; even a joint heir with Christ.  Amen.

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!  Father?’” (Gal. 4:6). 

                You may remember that Paul has already introduced the work of the Spirit as an evidence of their new life in Christ secured by faith (3:2).  Now he indicates that the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives is the fruit and therefore the evidence that they are now sons and not slaves.  Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as sealing one in Christ in Ephesians (1:13). 

                Paul uses the phrase “Spirit of His Son” to underline the intimacy of sonship that believers have as the result of redemption as opposed to slavery under the law.  The Holy Spirit brings us to the Father and grants us kinship just as the Son lives in perfect communion with the Father.  Thus we can affirm that the sonship of believers is the basis for receiving the Spirit and, conversely, the gift of the Spirit is seen as the means through which believers become conscious of their kinship.  Does this call to your mind the promises made to the first disciples in John 14 and John 16? 

                Did you notice that the Spirit has been “sent forth” “into our hearts?”  The law is external and cannot penetrate the heart, whereas the Spirit penetrates the heart to quicken and renew believers, allowing us to cry out “Abba! Father!” (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6, 17).  The cry is the passionate cry of new birth, of redemption.   It is like that cry that announces that birth has occurred.  The use of the Aramaic word for father probably is intended to underline the intimacy introduced by Jesus as He taught His original disciples to pray “Our Father.” 

Prayer: I praise You and thank You that I can cry to You as my Father.  Amen.

“So that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:5). 

                I grew up in Thomasville, NC the location of Mills Home orphanage.  I had many friends who lived at Mills Home.  They were happy to have a place to live and enjoyed their time there, but they longed for the day they would be adopted. 

                Throughout the letter to the Galatians we can hear Paul’s concern for some Galatians who are now ignoring the work of the Spirit and attempting to progress in their Christian life through legalistic obedience to the Law.  Once again Paul reminds them that God sent His own Son to redeem those who were under the law.  Remember that the law cannot provide sinful man with the redemption he desires and needs.  Christ, however, subjected Himself to the Law in order to redeem those under the Law. 

                Further, this redemption allows them to live as sons and not as slaves.  If we remember the context, we must understand Paul to be meaning sons who have reached majority age and thus have become heirs.  Rather than slavish yoke of the Law, we are now granted the freedom and privilege of sons.  The image of adoption underlines the grace of the Father who has chosen to provide for man’s redemption through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. 

Prayer:  Father, I thank You for adopting me as Your Son and giving me the status of a son.  Amen