Galatians 4:11
“Paul's Concern Over Returning to Bondage”Galatians 4:8–11
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- φοβοῦμαιphoboumaiI fearG5399V-PNI-1SVerb Present Middle Or Passive Deponent Indicative 1st Singular
- ὑμᾶςhumasfor youG4771P-2APPersonal pronoun Accusative 2nd Plural
- μήmēlestG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
- πωςpōsperhapsG4458PRTParticle or Disjunctive
- εἰκῇeikēain vainG1500ADVAdverb
- κεκοπίακαkekopiakaI have toiledG2872V-RAI-1SVerb Perfect Active Indicative 1st Singular
- εἰςeisforG1519PREPPreposition
- ὑμᾶςhumasyouG4771P-2APPersonal pronoun Accusative 2nd Plural
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Galatians 4:8–11. He set out his notes in a two-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
In these verses the apostle puts them in mind of what they were before their conversion to the faith of Christ, and what a blessed change their conversion had made upon them; and thence endeavours to convince them of their great weakness in hearkening to those who would bring them under the bondage of the law of Moses.
I.He reminds them of their past state and behaviour, and what they were before the gospel was preached to them.
Then they knew not God; they were grossly ignorant of the true God, and the way wherein he is to be worshipped: and at that time they were under the worst of slaveries, for they did service to those which by nature were no gods, they were employed in a great number of superstitious and idolatrous services to those who, though they were accounted gods, were yet really no gods, but mere creatures, and perhaps of their own making, and therefore were utterly unable to hear and help them. Note,
1.Those who are ignorant of the true God cannot but be inclined to false gods. Those who forsook the God who made the world, rather than be without gods, worshipped such as they themselves made.
2.Religious worship is due to none but to him who is by nature God; for, when the apostle blames the doing service to such as by nature were no gods, he plainly shows that he only who is by nature God is the proper object of our religious worship.
II.He calls upon them to consider the happy change that was made in them by the preaching of the gospel among them.
Now they had known God (they were brought to the knowledge of the true God and of his Son Jesus Christ, whereby they were recovered out of the ignorance and bondage under which they before lay) or rather were known of God; this happy change in their state, whereby they were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was not owing to themselves, but to him; it was the effect of his free and rich grace towards them, and as such they ought to account it; and therefore hereby they were laid under the greater obligation to adhere to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. Note, All our acquaintance with God begins with him; we know him, because we are known of him.
III.Hence he infers the unreasonableness and madness of their suffering themselves to be brought again into a state of bondage.
He speaks of it with surprise and deep concern of mind that such as they should do so: How turn you again, etc., says he, Galatians 4:9. "How is it that you, who have been taught to worship God in the gospel way, should not be persuaded to comply with the ceremonial way of worship? that you, who have been acquainted with a dispensation of light, liberty, and love, as that of the gospel is, should now submit to a dispensation of darkness, and bondage, and terror, as that of the law is?" This they had the less reason for, since they had never been under the law of Moses, as the Jews had been; and therefore on this account they were more inexcusable than the Jews themselves, who might be supposed to have some fondness for that which had been of such long standing among them. Besides, what they suffered themselves to be brought into bondage to were but weak and beggarly elements, such things as had no power in them to cleanse the soul, nor to afford any solid satisfaction to the mind, and which were only designed for that state of pupillage under which the church had been, but which had now come to a period; and therefore their weakness and folly were the more aggravated, in submitting to them, and in symbolizing with the Jews in observing their various festivals, here signified by days, and months, and times, and years. Here note,
1.It is possible for those who have made great professions of religion to be afterwards drawn into very great defections from the purity and simplicity of it, for this was the case of these Christians. And,
2.The more mercy God has shown to any, in bringing them into an acquaintance with the gospel, and the liberties and privileges of it, the greater are their sin and folly in suffering themselves to be deprived of them; for this the apostle lays a special stress upon, that after they had known God, or rather were known of him, they desired to be in bondage under the weak and beggarly elements of the law.
IV.Hereupon he expresses his fears concerning them, lest he had bestowed on them labour in vain.
He had been at a great deal of pains about them, in preaching the gospel to them, and endeavouring to confirm them in the faith and liberty of it; but now they were giving up these, and thereby rendering his labour among them fruitless and ineffectual, and with the thoughts of this he could not but be deeply affected. Note,
1.A great deal of the labour of faithful ministers is labour in vain; and, when it is so, it cannot but be a great grief to those who desire the salvation of souls. Note,
2.The labour of ministers is in vain upon those who begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh, who, though they seem to set out well, yet afterwards turn aside from the way of the gospel. Note,
3.Those will have a great deal to answer for upon whom the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ bestow labour in vain.
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Observe the tender compassion of the Apostle; they were shaken and he trembles and fears. And hence he has put it so as thoroughly to shame them, "I have bestowed labor upon you," saying, as it were, make not vain the labors which have cost me sweat and pain. By saying "I fear," and subjoining the word "lest," he both inspires alarm, and encourages good hope. He says not "I have labored in vain," but "lest," which is as much as to say, the wreck has not happened, but I see the storm big with it; so I am in fear, yet not in despair; ye have the power to set all right, and to return into your former calm. Then, as it were stretching out a hand to them thus tempest-tost, he brings himself into the midst, saying,
(Verses 10, 11.) Observing days, and months, and seasons, and years, I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you. Whoever does not worship the Father in spirit and truth, does not know the Sabbath rest that is reserved for the holy ones, about which God speaks: 'If they shall enter into my rest' (Psalm 94:11); and does not remember those times, of which it is written: 'Remember the days of old' (Isaiah 46:9). And elsewhere: 'I remembered the days of old, and I had in mind the eternal years' (Psalm 76:6). He observes the Jewish days, and months, and seasons, and years. Days, such as the Sabbath, the new moon, and from the tenth day of the first month until the fourteenth, when the literal lamb of the sacrifice is reserved, and from the fourteenth until the twenty-first of the same month, when unleavened bread is eaten, not in sincerity and truth, but in the old leaven of malice and wickedness of the Pharisees. He also celebrates the seven weeks, which the Jewish custom calculates after the unleavened bread, the days of the Israelite Pentecost. And also the sound of trumpets on the seventh day of the first month. Similarly, on the tenth day of the same month, they observe a day of expiation and fasting, as well as the custom of setting up booths, in the Jewish manner. They also observe the months, those who observe the first and seventh month, not understanding the mystery of truth. They also honor the seasons, who come to Jerusalem three times a year, thinking they fulfill the Lord's command, saying: Three times in the year you shall hold a feast for me, the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of the first fruits of the harvest, and the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year (Exodus 23:14ff.). And elsewhere: In three times of the year your male shall appear in the sight of the Lord your God (Ibid. XVII). But what he says, 'and years,' I think is said concerning the seventh year of remission, and the fiftieth, which they call Jubilee. The Apostle explains this passage more fully in his letter to the Colossians, saying: Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come (Coloss. II, 16). He placed a part of the festival to be celebrated for the distinction of perpetual festivity, so that we have not a brief, and, as it were, a certain portion of the whole body, but the entire space of our life in perpetual celebration in Christ. And in order to connect the later with the earlier, he immediately adds and says: If you have died with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still decree as if living in this world? You shall not touch, nor taste, nor handle, which are all things destined to perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. Let no one judge you in matters of observing days, months, seasons, and years. We also incur a similar crime by observing the fourth day of the Sabbath, and Preparation Day, and the Lord's Day, and the fasting of Lent, and the celebration of Easter, and the joy of Pentecost, and the different times established in honor of the martyrs according to the custom of each region. To which, one who responds simply will say: the Jewish observance days are not the same as ours. For we do not celebrate the Passover of unleavened bread, but of the resurrection and the cross. Nor do we count seven weeks in Pentecost according to the custom of Israel, but we honor the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so that the disorderly gathering of the people would not diminish faith in Christ, certain days were established so that we all would come together as one. Not so much that day on which we meet is more famous, but that on whichever day we should meet, mutual joy should arise out of sight (or even out of aspect). However, whoever attempts to answer the opposite question more sharply affirms that all days are equal, not only the Friday on which Christ was crucified and the Sunday on which He rose, but that every day is holy and every day we partake of the flesh of the Lord. However, fasts and gatherings among days have been established by wise men for those who are more occupied with the world than with God, and they cannot, no, they do not want to gather together in the Church during the whole time of their lives, and to offer the sacrifice of their prayers to God before human actions. For how many people are there who at least practice these few things that have been established, either the times of prayer or the times of fasting? Therefore, just as it is permissible for us to fast at all times, or to pray at all times, and to continuously celebrate the Lord's day with the reception of the Lord's body, so it is not permissible for the Jews to sacrifice a lamb at all times, to celebrate Pentecost, to set up tabernacles, and to fast daily. However, with caution and moderation, he balanced the authority of the Apostle and the gentleness of the holy man, saying: I fear lest I have labored in vain among you. For if he had wanted to condemn them abruptly, he would certainly have said: I fear you: for I have labored without cause in you. But now, seeing that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, he did not entirely despair of their salvation, who had been deceived by a godly error, nor did he leave them blameless, lest he give occasion both to them to persist in error, and to others to make a similar mistake. I fear you, he said, for what you are. I fear for you. The teacher labors without cause, when he himself challenges the students to greater things, and they, having fallen back, return to lesser and lower things.
So, let the reader choose whichever interpretation he wishes, so long as he understands that such superstitious observances of times bring great peril to the soul, so much so that the apostle adds, “I am afraid, lest perhaps I should have labored in you in vain.” … And yet if someone, even a catechumen, is caught observing the sabbath by the Jewish rite, the church is confused. As it is, innumerable members of the church say with great complacency in open view of us, “I do not travel on the day after the first.” … Alas for human sinfulness, that we only denounce what is unfamiliar, but with familiar things we tolerate them, although they may be great and cause the kingdom of heaven to be shut against them absolutely. It is for them that the Son of God shed his blood. We come to tolerate them through frequent acquaintance with them, and through increased toleration we share in them.
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This verse
Paul fears for the Galatians, that all the hard work he spent on them may come to nothing if they leave the gospel of grace.
“I am afraid of you,”
Afraid for them, a pastor’s distress over the way they are going.
“lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
His weary toil among them, preaching, teaching and suffering, might prove to have produced no lasting fruit if they abandon grace for works.
Passage studyGalatians 4:8–11
Known of God, Turning Back to Bondage
Summary
In four verses Paul sets the Galatians’ past beside their present. Before they knew God they were slaves to gods that are no gods. Now God has known them as his own, and yet they are turning to “weak and beggarly elements” and keeping a calendar of days, months, times and years as though their standing with God depended on it. Paul asks how people who have been set free could want to be slaves again, and he admits his fear that his labour among them may have been for nothing. Behind his question stands the freedom Christ has won for his people and the Father’s knowledge of his children, which the whole letter defends.
What the Galatians served before they knew God
The churches of Galatia were made up mostly of Gentiles who had come to faith through Paul’s preaching. Before that they had worshipped the many gods and goddesses of the Roman world, with their myths and their elaborate rituals. Paul has just described how God sent his Son to redeem those under the law and sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying “Abba, Father”, so that they are sons and heirs (Galatians 4:1–7). Now he reminds them of an older bondage than the heir’s time under tutors and governors, their life as pagans.
“When ye knew not God” uses eídō, a verb that properly means to see and is used for knowing. The Galatians had no sight or knowledge of the one true God, his character or his plan to redeem. In that darkness, “ye did service”. The verb is douleúō, formed from the word for a slave (doulos), and it means to serve as a slave, whether literally or figuratively. Their worship was slavery. It took their devotion and gave them no life or freedom in return, much as sin makes slaves of those who yield themselves to obey it (Romans 6:16).
What does Paul mean by “by nature are no gods”?
He means that the beings they served had no divine being in them at all. Phýsis, “nature”, is what a thing is in itself, its inherent makeup. The true God is God by his very nature and eternally, and the idols, myths and spirits of Galatia lacked that nature from the start. They could not create, redeem or satisfy anyone. Paul teaches the Corinthians that an idol is nothing and that for us there is one God (1 Corinthians 8:4–6), he describes in Romans 1:21–23 how people exchanged the glory of the Creator for images, and Isaiah exposes the folly of the idol-maker (Isaiah 44:9–20). Paul’s words leave room for spiritual powers working behind idolatry, while denying them any share in the nature of God.
The same holds wherever we give our final trust and loyalty to something other than God, whether money, success, standing, comfort, a political cause, or our own goodness. Whatever takes his place in the heart becomes a god that by nature is no god.
Known of God
“But now” marks the great change in their lives. They “have known God”, and here the verb is ginṓskō, the everyday word for knowing, coming to know, perceiving and understanding. “Knew” in verse 8 and “known” in verse 9 share the English word but translate different Greek verbs.
Then Paul corrects himself: “or rather are known of God.” The weight falls on the second phrase. The Galatians know God because God first knew them. When Scripture speaks of God knowing people, it means that he has set his favour on them and taken them as his own: “the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous” (Psalm 1:6), and to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). The verb itself is ordinary, and the depth comes from the One who is doing the knowing.
So salvation begins with God. He chose and recognised them before they turned to him, which is the same grace by which a person is justified by faith in Christ (Galatians 2:16). Our standing with God rests on his knowledge and love of us, and that makes it firm. It also makes the Galatians’ turning back all the stranger, since the God who knows them as sons is the One they are leaving for a system of rules.
What are the “weak and beggarly elements”?
Stoicheîon, “elements”, means something in an ordered row, a first or basic part of a series. In the ancient world it was used for the basic parts of the universe (earth, air, fire and water), for the letters of the alphabet, and for the first principles of any subject. Paul uses it in Galatians and in Colossians 2:8 for elementary principles. Here it points first to the law of Moses and its ceremonies. That law was given by God and had its place as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24–25), so it was preparation, the ABC of something greater. In the Greek world the word could also mean elemental spirits or philosophical principles, and the phrase reaches any religious system, including the Galatians’ old pagan rites, that tries to earn God’s favour by works and rituals.
Paul gives these elements two adjectives, stoicheia asthenē kai ptōcha. They are weak, asthenḗs, without strength, because they have no power to justify or sanctify. God did in his Son what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh (Romans 8:3–4), and Hebrews speaks of the earlier commandment being set aside for its weakness and unprofitableness (Hebrews 7:18–19). They are beggarly, ptōchós, poor and destitute, because they have no riches to give, while in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9).
Why does Paul say “again”?
“Again” stands twice in verse 9: “how turn ye again” and “ye desire again to be in bondage”. The verb for turning, epistréphō, means to turn back to a former state. These Gentiles had never kept the law of Moses, yet Paul calls their move toward it a return. The reason is in the verb “to be in bondage”, which is douleúō, the same verb as “did service” in verse 8. Pagan worship and a law kept in order to be right with God both make slaves, and so taking up the law on those terms would put the Galatians back into the slavery they had left, under a new master. A law that God gave becomes bondage when it replaces faith in Christ’s finished work.
The pressure came from Jewish Christians, often called Judaizers, who reached the Galatian churches after Paul had left. They insisted that Gentile believers be circumcised (Galatians 5:2–12) and keep parts of the law, such as its food laws and its festivals, in order to be truly justified or made complete. Paul had already asked them, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1–3). The same question troubled the whole early church and was taken up at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15). These churches were most likely in the Roman province of Galatia, perhaps founded on Paul’s first missionary journey.
The days, months, times and years
Verse 10 shows what the turning back looked like in practice. “Ye observe” is paratēréō, to watch closely or observe, and here it is a scrupulous keeping of the calendar, an outward exactness that puts performance where faith should be. The list sweeps across the whole year, with “and” three times over, so that the Galatians were taking up the full round of the ceremonial law.
Does Paul forbid keeping special days?
Paul is rebuking days kept as a requirement for salvation, for God’s favour, or for a higher standing among believers, because keeping them that way shifts our trust from Christ’s finished work to our own performance. In Romans 14:5–6 he leaves the regarding of one day above another to each believer’s conscience before the Lord. Disciplines, traditions and church calendars can serve worship and growth well. The danger lies in making them a condition of being right with God.
These observances were God’s own appointments, and they were shadows that pointed ahead to the Messiah. Paul says of such things that they “are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17). Christ is the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9–10), the Lamb of God whose one sacrifice takes away sin (John 1:29), and the One in whose death, resurrection, sending of the Spirit and return the feasts find their meaning. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). To go back to the shadows as a way of gaining righteousness is to miss the reality that has come.
Paul’s fear for the Galatians
“I am afraid of you” means afraid for you, or concerning you. Phobéō is to fear, and here it is the anxious concern of a spiritual father for his children, with his fear fixed on them and on the gospel they received. “Lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” explains it. Kopiáō is toil to the point of weariness, and Paul’s labour in Galatia was his preaching, teaching, suffering and all he poured into them. Eikē, “in vain”, means idly, without reason, or without effect. If the Galatians left the gospel of grace, all that work would have failed to produce the lasting freedom and righteousness in Christ it was meant to bring.
Paul speaks of his work this way elsewhere. He wants the Philippians to be “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Philippians 2:16). He also knew whose grace stood behind his labour: “his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). What was at risk in Galatia was the fruit of that grace in their lives. He had already called their drift a turning to another gospel, which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6–9), and he warns that those who seek to be justified by the law are fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4). They had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith (Galatians 3:1–3), and that is the beginning they were in danger of abandoning.
Was Paul’s fear realised?
Scripture leaves the final outcome in Galatia untold. The letter itself is Paul’s urgent effort to keep his fear from coming true, and the force of his pleading shows that the danger was real and that he believed they could still be brought back to the truth.
Paul’s fear stands beside his word that the Galatians are known of God, and believers differ on how the two fit together. Some believers hold that people who truly believed can fall from grace, as Galatians 5:4 warns, so that Paul fears for their salvation itself. Others hold that those whom God knows as his own are kept by him, and that warnings like this one are among the means by which he keeps them, so that Paul fears for whether their faith will prove real and lasting. On either reading the warning is serious, and the remedy is the same: the gospel of grace received by faith in Christ alone.
Christ, the freedom these verses guard
The God the Galatians “knew not” is made known in Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and the brightness of the Father’s glory (Hebrews 1:3), and the only begotten Son has declared the Father whom no one has seen (John 1:18). In him we see the divine nature that every “no god” lacks, and his death and resurrection break the power of all such gods, together with the spiritual forces behind them.
Christ is also the answer to the weak and beggarly elements. He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17), he redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13), and he is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth (Romans 10:4). We know the Father, and are known by him, only through the Son, who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). In him we have received the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), the Spirit by whom we cry “Abba, Father”.
Paul’s labour could be spent in vain, and Christ’s never is. He offered himself once to put away sin (Hebrews 9:26), and his work achieved all it set out to do. The righteousness that comes from God by faith in him (Philippians 3:9) is the one foundation, and the labour that lasts is built on it (1 Corinthians 3:11–15).
Freedom held by the God who knows us
These verses give us a true account of where we came from and where we now stand. Apart from God we were slaves to what has no claim to be God. Now he has known us, and his knowing is the ground on which our faith rests. Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36), and Paul, after these verses, sums up the whole matter in one charge: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
Paul’s fear shows us how much that freedom is worth to God’s servants, and how serious it is to trade it for a list of observances. His question, “how turn ye again”, is asked by someone who loves the Galatians, and the God who knew them first is the same God to whom he is calling them back.
Galatians 4:8
“Howbeit then,”
Paul turns from the sonship of verses 1–7 to the Galatians’ life before the gospel reached them.
“when ye knew not God,”
A time of spiritual ignorance, when they had no knowledge of the one true Creator.
“ye did service unto them”
They were active in pagan worship, and Paul names it slavery with the verb douleúō.
“which by nature are no gods.”
Whatever they served, idols, mythological figures or spirits, had no divine being in itself. Their devotion was given to what could give nothing back.
Galatians 4:9
“But now, after that ye have known God,”
“But now” sets their present against their past. They have come to know God through the gospel.
“or rather are known of God,”
Paul corrects his own words so that the emphasis falls on God’s knowing, which came first and is the ground of their knowing him.
“how turn ye again”
A question of astonishment. Paul asks how this can be, and he expects them to see that it makes no sense.
“to the weak and beggarly elements,”
Rudimentary principles, chiefly the ceremonial law kept as a means of standing right with God, which are powerless and poor beside Christ.
“whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”
They are choosing this willingly. To want the elements is to want slavery again.
Galatians 4:10
“Ye observe days,”
A statement, sharp as a rebuke. The days are the weekly Sabbath and other holy days.
“and months,”
The New Moon observances at the start of each month.
“and times,”
The yearly feasts at their set seasons, such as Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.
“and years.”
The yearly round of feasts, or possibly the sabbatical year and the Jubilee. The list as a whole is the full ceremonial calendar.
Galatians 4:11 This verse
“I am afraid of you,”
Afraid for them, a pastor’s distress over the way they are going.
“lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
His weary toil among them, preaching, teaching and suffering, might prove to have produced no lasting fruit if they abandon grace for works.
Last revised