Galatians 4

A child is similar to a slave

1. He is restricted by the household with no freedom nor authority

2. Yet he is destined to inherit unlike the slave

We are under the elements of the world

1. Karma

2. Good people get good things

3. Bad people will get what they deserve

4. These are all false teachings that we are in bondage of

When the time was right, Jesus came as a human under the law to redeem those also under the law so that we might become the Lord’s children and heirs as well.

1. Freed from bondage like a slave, taken in and adopted into an heir

God has sent spirits into our hearts to call out to him as Father

1. No longer a slave to the world but a child of God’s

This is the choice we have to make

1. To live under the world’s chains or to be accepted into God’s kinship

2. Paul asks the Galatians how they can know and still turn away to the world

3. He is afraid for the Galatians and worries his labors may have been in vain

Paul says to become like him since he became like them (christian)

When Paul last visited the Galatians, he was wounded and weak yet they received him honorably

1. They welcomed him and received him and now Paul asks if they reject him because he tells the truth now.

Paul warns them of the Legalists

1. A Chinese political philosophy

2. They persistently try to court the Galatians

3. Wanting to draw them away from Christian groups into their own spiritual philosophy groups

4. It is good to be zealous for the right reasons though!

Paul sees the Galatians as his children and says he is in labor pains until he sees Christ in them

1. He wants to be with them and have his softer tone, but their behavior causes him to be stern and have his doubts

As Abraham had two children from two women: one from the world and one from a promise

1. Hagar is like a covenant of the flesh and only gives birth to bondage (Ishmael)

   1. Legalism lives by the flesh

2. Sarah is like the covenant from God and gives birth to freedom (Isaac)