Sons vs. Servants
Galatians 4:1-9 continues Paul's arguments to the Galatians to not put themselves back under the bondage of the law. He gives an analogy of what the heir to a kingdom is like in youth. Such people have a title that speaks to future glory and power, but that glory and power is not yet available to them. They must grow up, both learning from schoolmasters, tutors, and indeed by observing how their world functions before they become part of it. How many stories have been written about royalty trying to escape their bonds of royalty as it is just as much a prison to them as prison bars are to criminals who have been caught.
In the same way, Paul declares that the Jewish people were like a royal family. They were in bondage for a time, under the instruction and constraints of the law. When the time was made ready for God to bring Jesus into this world, He did so, to a Jewish woman. While Jesus was young, He too, along with His parents, fulfilled the letter of the law.
But eventually, He fulfilled His purpose completely. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for all the sins of humanity. For those who choose His blood sacrifice he provided a simple path to salvation. He redeemed all of the people who were laboring under the law and gave them a position where they could declare God their Father by adoption. He gave us the right to call out to God as our Father as He had.
Being a son also made us an heir of God through Christ. He spoke this message to both the Jews and the Greeks in Galatia. For the Greeks, he pointed out that they had been giving service to idols, made by man, who were not gods at all. For both the Jews and the Greeks, Paul asked how they could be set free, be declared sons of God, and then put themselves back under the bondage of the law.
Bondage of Law
In Galatians 4:10-21, Paul continues speaking of his concerns for the Galatians. They had begun again to observe all the special times of the year, the feasts and other Jewish observances that were required for the Jewish faith, and perhaps also some of the Greeks were drifting back into the heathen practices out of which they had been delivered. Paul began to seriously feel like all of his labor for them had been in vain.
He reminded them of the joy they felt as he first preached the gospel message to them. I'm sure that he exaggerates a bit, but he says that they were so happy, initially, to hear his message that they would have given their own eyes to him if he had needed them. Remember that at this point, it is believed that he was perhaps having trouble with his eyesight, needing help to write letters, so his comment here isn't baseless. It isn't said what his infirmity was, although perhaps related to eyesight, but he states that regardless of his infirmities, they received him with thanksgiving.
Their moving back to the law hadn't affect the beliefs of Paul at all. He just encouraged them to be like he was, and to stop falling back into false religions. He wonders if they would now turn against him for writing them the truth of their fallen condition. The outside world (both Jew and Greek) were both trying to entice them back to a snare, but also trying to remain unmoved by the Christian message.
Paul gives a final truth in this portion. We need to remain zealous for God's work at all times. How many revivals have been preached, with people being fired up for God, only to have that zeal wane away as the days and weeks follow after the evangelist has moved on the the next town as Paul had done. It should not be so. Every service, regardless of whether there is a special speaker or not, should lift us up to a higher place where we remain steadfast until the next service. We need to be continually looking to higher ground, figuratively closer to God.
Paul ended this section saying that he wished he could come to them in person to straighten them out. He had sincere doubts about their Christianity, considering the things they were doing.
So what about today? What other things should a modern day Christian take from this epistle? Well, there are at least two very obvious takeaway notes. First, there are a vast number of Christians who are just as much observers of months, times, and years as the Galatians. They take summers off from God's work because they are busy going on vacations and relaxing. Some only show up for Christmas and Easter because those are the really important times you need to be seen (because so many of your friends will also only be showing up on Christmas and Easter)!
Finally, there are another large group of Christians who attend church on Sunday, because that's what is done in a "Christian" community, but go about their lives the rest of the day Sunday and the rest of the week as they see fit. They may feel saved, may actually be saved, but they have no zeal at all for Christianity.
When they were first saved, they might have tried hard to get their friends to be saved as well. But as friend after friend either ceased to be a friend or declined, they gave up. The zeal disappeared. Perhaps, they even gave up walking like a Christian in order to have more friends or keep the ones they had. Perhaps, just after being saved, their personal lives were still to rough to be accepted by the Christians, so they stopped trying to change in order to have friends. Both the good and the bad can share the blame when new Christians find it hard to assimilate into church.
Whatever the reasons that you are where you are, it is up to you rediscover your zealous fire for God. It doesn't matter if someone wronged you, or didn't do enough right to suit you. When you stand face to face with God, He will ask, so what? Probably in much the same way Jesus told Peter, after telling Peter that he was going to be crucified as well and Peter asked about John, and Jesus replied no matter what I decide happens with John, what's that got to do with you? (John 21:18-22)
You aren't alone in your pain. Most Christians have had pain of some sort in their life. Their life hasn't gone as they had planned or hoped or believed it would. Mine certainly hasn't, so I can assure you that you are not alone. But you still have to deal with it.
Find your zeal again. Don't let yourself be put under bondage to whatever you were previously under. Don't be a Christmas and Easter Christian. While that may be better than nothing, we are told to not forsake being together as we see the time of Christ's return approaching (Hebrews 10:25). It is good to learn ore reinforce your beliefs routinely, and once or twice a year just isn't enough. You're putting yourself in an easy position to be picked off by Satan (1 Peter 5:8).
If you've been a Christian long enough that you've heard all the sermons and can pretty accurately guess where a sermon is going when you see the title, then maybe you need to be taking a more active role in the work of God. But don't take my or the your own word for it. Talk about it with Christians in leadership who know you well. If you're only showing up a couple times a year, they probably don't know you well. And as you're doing that, evaluate yourself against the standards God holds out for his preachers and teachers. A self evaluation before meeting with the boss is always a good idea. 1 Timothy 3 is a good starting place.
Parallel to Abraham's Children
In the last part of Galatians 4:22-31, Paul uses the allegory of Abraham's children by Agar and Sarah. Both had the same father, but had very different lives due to their status. For his allegory, Paul equates to child of the bondwoman Agar (or Hagar, the Egyptian, in the Old Testament) and her child to those under the law. He equated the child of promise that came from Sarah to life under Christ, free of the law.
Just like Isaac, Christians are the children of promise. Just as there were issues between those two generations of children in the Old Testament, and indeed through current day, the same issues were rising their heads in Galatia. Bondage to the Law, or freedom in Christ.
Just as in the Old Testament when Sarah cast out Hagar, so the law was cast out when Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for sin. That doesn't mean we have liberty to pursue a life of sin or that his otherwise displeasing to God. But the law will not provide any security or covering for our failures. Only the blood of Christ can do that.
We are not children of the bondwoman (or the law), but of the free woman (or Christ). We need to be always cautious that nothing is trying to put us back under the bondage of either the Old Testament law or equivalents today.
There are many Old Testament and New Testament saints who did great things for God. Many came after them and likewise did great things for God. I'm sure that they have their rewards in heaven. I also don't presume to know whether they can hear prayers to them or not, nor do I know if they would be inclined to try to intercede with God on behalf of those praying to them. But I suspect that in both cases, this is an example of bondage that some in the church have put themselves under. It is good to look up to successful Christians, but it is always great to realize that they would have been nothing without God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We need to reserve our worship for God and not let saints get in the way.
And this, we need to clearly understand. If God decides that some prayer needs answered for His own purposes, in spite of the fact someone prayed to a saint instead of to the Father in the name of Jesus like He asked us to do, that answer was still done by the power of the almighty Father God. It wasn't answered by some saint or good person in heaven. Any person on earth who starts thinking they are something because God is doing great things through them needs to readjust their own attitudes post haste. Christ said He could have stones cry out praises to Him if He wanted. (Luke 19:40)
Likewise, we have just been through the Christmas season, the actual date of which has little to do with Christ's birth, and are approaching St. Valentine's day. That is thought of as a romantic holiday, But that is because the martyrdom of St. Valentine who had performed secret weddings in defiance of Claudius II's ban. The Catholic church picked February 14th because it fell on the date of a pagan fertility festival of Lepercalia. There is much blending of pagan and religious dates that some branches of Christianity pay attention to. We need to ensure that we aren't setting up our own modern traps that lead us away from what God wants His church to be.