Galatians 4:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

NIV: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

NASB: However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods.

CSB: But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

NLT: Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist.

KJV: Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

NKJV: But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.

Paul is writing to a group of Christians in Galatia who are beginning to be influenced by false teachers to start following the law of Moses in order to be acceptable to God (Galatians 2:4). Using several different approaches, Paul has made a case as to why it does not make sense to seek salvation through the law, when Christ came at just the right time to save them, in His grace, by faith.

Paul has also reminded the Galatians of all that comes with being saved by faith in Christ, as opposed to struggling to earn merit by trying to follow the law. They have been adopted by God as His very children. They have a share in the inheritance of Jesus Christ. God's own Spirit has come to live in their hearts so that they can call out to God as their own Abba, a word which means "father."

Now Paul takes the Galatians back to their spiritual condition before they trusted in Christ. Then, they were not even followers of the law of Moses. They were slaves to other figures, like Zeus and Hermes, who were not even true gods, at all. Their false religion held them captive to false hopes of being saved or favored by false gods. Paul seems to be saying that he knows the Galatians don't want to go back to worshiping those gods.

The following verse follows from this assumption. He will ask why, then, they would want to be slaves again to the worldly principles that now come with following the law.

Galatians 4:8–20 reveals that the Galatian Christians have already begun legalistically following the law of Moses, by observing special days. Why would they want to go back to slavery by following the law to be justified by God, Paul asks? Why have they gone from blessing him and trusting in Christ to rejecting him for telling the truth? The false teachers are only using them to bring glory to themselves, Paul insists. Paul is in anguish for them as a mother in childbirth. He longs to see Christ formed in them.

In this chapter, Paul uses three new methods to teach his Galatian readers an important lesson. It is futile to follow the law of Moses in order to be made right before God, since justification comes only by faith in Christ. First, Paul shows that the arrival of Christ made it possible for all people to become God's children through faith in Him. Next, Paul makes a more personal appeal, asking what has changed to cause the Galatians to turn on Paul's teaching of the gospel. Finally, Paul builds an allegory from Scripture, illustrating the difference between being born into slavery and being born into the promise by faith in Christ.

Galatians 3 ends with Paul stating, once more, that those who are in Christ are Abraham's offspring, just as He is, making us heirs along with Him. Galatians 4 continues that idea, showing how Christ's arrival signaled the moment all people could receive the inheritance with Him and be adopted as God's children. Paul makes his appeal personal, asking why the Galatians moved from blessing him to rejecting the message of Christ. The chapter ends with Paul's allegory about the difference between being born into slavery under the law and being born into freedom by the power of the Spirit through faith in Christ. Chapter 5 will continue by expanding on the freedom we have in Christ.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.