NT Study, Part 19. Part 12 in our discussion of Galatians.

You, a Celtic woman of Galatia, were relieved when you first met the God of Israel, the God who forbade human sacrifice. The history of your tribe included the grisly business of sacrificing infants and offering up to your gods women and children with dogs and other animals, all together in a bloody overlaid arrangement of chopped pieces.

Your tribes believed that souls would ascend and live together in a land of beauty. And yet, you feared that this might not be true, for the only beauty you had seen so far within Druid practice were the oak trees and your handmade art of stone and carvings and molten metal.

Your tribe had established a thriving Roman society in Galatia with cut-stone houses and public buildings, forged by ingenuity and a strong work ethic. And yet, your people “were known for lopping off heads of men in battle, tying them to their belts and bringing them back to display for all their friends at home, though the Romans complained about your tribal practice of human sacrifice.”1.

You still remember the night your mother had wailed until dawn after your father had sacrificed her newborn. You had hated your father after that. Your mother never recovered. One day she hurled herself off a cliff, leaving you, the eldest daughter, to assume all of her duties.

Tragically, that meant your father visited your cot on occasion in the night. Each time afterward, you drank down a nasty potion. Mostly, he met his needs with your younger brothers. There was often blood.

When you married the boy you had loved all of your life, you felt incredible relief. Throughout your childhood, you had often hidden away together in the woods to avoid witnessing the sacrifices. Like you, he couldn’t embrace this. When the marriage rituals were done, he took you home to his family, and you felt as if you could finally breathe.

His Celtic family had converted to Judaism, leaving behind Druid practices. The prominence of your new husband’s family had won over your father’s religious objections. Your father had remarried and was now focused on his new young wife, and so, one by one, you smuggled your younger siblings into your new home.

You met Yahweh in worship. You could now attend synagogue. You converted to Judaism, and began to learn and to love this God of mercy and justice, who cared for children and widows and orphans. And then, a conflict erupted in the synagogue when two men arrived, talking about Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul and Barnabas were compelling and insightful, and yet, after they left, a group in the synagogue insisted that the Law still had to be followed. No, others argued, the ceremonial Law was now obsolete. The synagogue was divided. People weren’t speaking to one another. Those who had accepted Christ began to meet in your home.

And then, a letter arrived from Paul, who had heard of your struggle from his location in Antioch and had written a detailed missive explaining everything you had questioned.

Paul wrote: “8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 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? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:8-11 ESV).

You are now free. Why go back?

Before your people, the Celtic men and women of Galatia, had come to know God, they had been “enslaved,” in servitude to pagan gods. You were a victim of the awful practices required by Celtic idols, which overlapped with the Roman and Greek gods in atrocities. This was your heritage, enslavement to “those that by nature are not gods,” but rather were demonic spirits demanding worship. Your people had been estranged from Yahweh by your pagan worship and beliefs (cf. Eph. 2:12–13; Col. 1:21).

In contrast, the Jews had a connection with Yahweh, the God who had chosen them, revealing himself to Abraham and then to the Jewish nation on Mount Sinai. The Jewish believers had grown up observing the Law. Paul had led these Jews of Galatia to Christ, and yet many still desired to continue to keep the Law, scrupulously observing the prescribed days and months and seasons and years within the Law.

Yet Christ had fulfilled the Law. The ceremonial instructions of clean and unclean no longer applied, neither did the dietary restrictions. There was now no need to keep the Law, though many of the Jewish believers did.

Paul asked: “How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:9b ESV). These rules and restrictions were no longer necessary.

All humans have the potential of knowing about God from creation. You had first awakened to an awareness of God as you observed the rising sun, the shimmer of the night moon, and the canopy of stars.

“There was also an inner moral witness (cf. Rom. 2:14–15), natural revelation (Ps. 19:1-5, Rom. 1:19–20), but God’s Word asserts that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, rejected this knowledge (cf. Romans 3:23).”2.

You and everyone around you were often blind to this evidence of God’s existence. Paul wrote that, in your past, your people had no cognitive sense of actually knowing God. In his letter, he urged you not to now embrace bondage to the Law, but rather to enjoy your privileges as free sons and daughters.

He explained that the slavery your people were in danger of embracing again was not just a matter of forfeiting your privileges as sons and daughters of Yahweh, but of abandoning the true God Himself. You would be returning to false gods (v.8), to worldly principles and structures (vv.9-10).3. It would be as if you had never heard the gospel (v.11). “For the Gentile Galatian Christians, turning to the Jewish Law would be like returning to paganism.”4.

Would all of you reject Christ and return to idolatry and evil practices, embracing once again the “weak and worthless elementary principles of the world”?

Would this confusion over the Law, and whether or not to keep it, send all of you reeling back to your former beliefs? Paul clearly had this concern. (Colossians 2:8 ESV) (Colossians 2:20-21 ESV).

To truly know God and to be known by God indicates a personal relationship. Recognizing that you did not know God motivated you, Jew and Gentile, to embrace Jesus Messiah as preached by Paul.

Deep in your souls, you all knew God existed. You saw this in the beauty of God’s creation, and you knew it in your Greek-influenced minds, having discerned the concept of a sense of self as different from others and yet separated from God. It was the awareness of this reality and conviction of God’s Spirit that turned Celtic Gentiles to listen to Paul and to receive Christ in the first place.

And so, Paul appeals to you “not to turn back from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again.”5.

Knowing and being known are what is at issue: “9 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? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:8-11 ESV).

"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?" (Galatians 4:9a ESV). #Faith #Trust #bgbg2  Click To Tweet

To know “carries the Hebrew connotation of knowledge as an interpersonal relationship (Gal. 4:9; cf. Gen. 4:1; Jer. 1:5). The new relationship you have have with Christ “was not based on facts about God but God’s initiating a new covenant through Christ with those who had been estranged (cf. Eph. 2:11–3:13).” 6.

You didn’t know God, but now you do, and are known by God. (Galatians 4:9).

You “did not first know and love God, but God first, in His electing love, knew and loved you as His, and therefore attracted you to the saving knowledge of Him (Mt 7:23; 1 Co 8:3; 2 Ti 2:19; Ex 33:12, 17; Jn 15:16; Php 3:12). God’s great grace in this made your fall from it the more heinous.”7.

Paul often had stated this to all of you: “But if anyone loves God, he is known by God“8.

You "did not first know and love God, but God first, in His electing love, knew and loved you as His, and therefore attracted you to the saving knowledge of Him" (R.J. Utley). #GodLovesYou #bgbg2 Click To Tweet To truly know God and to be known by God indicates a personal relationship with God. "But if anyone loves God, he is known by God" (1 Corinthians 8:3 ESV). #TrueFaith #Salvation #bgbg2 Click To Tweet

Paul appeals to you Galatian Christians with great passion, urging you not to turn away from God, but to resist the insistence of the Hebrew Judaizers that you must keep the Law.

Paul writes: “What then has become of your blessedness? . . . 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17They [the Judaizers] make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you” (Galatians 4:15-20 ESV).

This sense of blessedness, joy, and divine approval had been felt by you all when Paul preached the Gospel. You had believed, and had received the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2). You long to hold onto this. You will not be taken in by these false teachers, the Judaizers. Both you and your husband have decided. You are now at peace.

What type of joy and blessedness have you experienced as a Christian? How does legalism strip that away?

Did you ever find yourself tempted to become legalistic in your practice of faith? In what ways do you rely upon the Lord in order to resist legalism?

  1. NYT Archaeology account, Archaeology Archive, By John Noble Wilford, Dec. 25, 2001.
  2. Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 333). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
  3. Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, Strong’s #4747. Stoicheíon, the Greek word used in each orange phrase above, “is always in the plural, tá stoicheía, the basic parts, rudiments, elements, or components of something. Among the ancient Greek philosophers, it designated the four basic and essential elements of which the universe consisted, namely, earth, water, air, and fire. In 2 Peter 3:10, 12 the word carries this meaning. Figuratively, stoicheia also refers to the elements or first principles of the Christian doctrine (Heb. 5:12). Using this word, Paul labels the ceremonial ordinances of the Mosaic Law as “worldly elements” (Gal. 4:3; Col. 2:8, 20, see above). In Gal. 4:9 he calls them “weak and poor elements” when contrasted with the great realities to which they were designed to lead, for these elements contain the rudiments of the knowledge of Christ. The Law, as a schoolmaster, was to bring the Jews to this knowledge (Gal. 3:24).
  4. ESV Study Bible note on Galatians 4:8-11, Passing from Idolatry to the True God, Crossway Bibles, Wheaton, Illinois. 2008.
  5. Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 333). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
  6.  Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 333). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
  7. Utley, R. J. (1997). Paul’s First Letters: Galatians and I & II Thessalonians (Vol. Volume 11, p. 46). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.
  8. 1 Corinthians 8:3 ESV
  9. ESV Study Bible, ESV translation of Galatians 4:16, Crossway Bibles, Wheaton, Illinois, 2008.

These sources of ancient practices of the Celts were investigated: NYT, Archeology Account, Archaeology Archive; Herodotus, The Histories; Western Civilization by Jackson J. Spielvogel; The Ethnic Identity and Redefinition of the Galatians in the Hellenistic World, paper by Qizhen Xie, University of New Hampshire, History Honor Thesis; Galatia in Britannica.