BUT what were the Galatians before the gospel of Christ was brought to them by Paul? Simply idolaters, as all the heathen around them. “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods” (ver. 8). How contemptuously the apostle describes their old heathen deities! And how strongly he speaks of their votaries! Philosophers though many of them were, they knew not God. They might be well stored with the wisdom of this world, and be able to moralize, etc.; but Godward their hearts were hardened and their understandings darkened. They were totally ignorant of Him.
Here we see the importance of noticing Paul's use of the pronouns “we” and “ye,” as already pointed out. All this could not be said of Paul and his fellow-Jews. They did not follow after heathen idolatry. They abhorred it and had the utmost contempt for it and its victims. Whatever the disgraceful proneness of the Jews before the Babylonish captivity, they kept clear of idolatry afterward. True, the house was only empty, but neither occupied nor cleansed, though swept and garnished. Still they were not idolaters; the Gentiles around them were.
And what were the Galatians doing now? “But now, after ye have known God or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain” (vers. 9-11). This may sound strong language to some, but it is the faithful language of the Holy Spirit. They were not returning to their old gods, but were going after Judaism, with its legal requirements and ritual observances. And this is called a return to idolatry! Judaism was a system set up and once owned of God, being expressive of Christ in all its parts. Indeed, souls established in grace can turn back at all times to the books of Exodus, Leviticus, etc. and find real delight in all the Spirit's unfoldings of Christ that are found there in a typical way. Viewed from such a standpoint the old order was very far removed from idolatry. But Christ having come, the substance of all is here; heavenly realities have been brought in. Consequently a Judaism perpetuated by willful and blinded men is now idolatry. It is sensuous religion, in which flesh can engage and delight itself. Things that spoke once of Christ are now weak and beggarly elements, and the whole atmosphere is one of bondage.
Solemn words for thousands in this day! Christendom has always been more or less infatuated with its law-keeping, feast-days, and ritual in general. But now the enemy of souls seems determined to darken in this way all the light which God of late years has shed through His word, to say nothing of the partial, help graciously granted at the Reformation. Men are mad after weak and beggarly elements in every direction. Such things are placed between the soul and Christ, involving darkness and ruin. So gravely did the apostle regard this movement among the Galatians that he feared lest he had bestowed labor upon them in vain. What would he say of Christendom now?
It is well to compare this with his very different tone in Rom. 14. There he insists on toleration and contends that he that regards one day above another, regards it to the Lord. Here we may see, not contradiction, but the exceeding grace of the Holy Spirit. The Romans were evidently a mixed company. Some had been Jews, others had been Gentiles. He would not have the latter impatient and ungracious as to the prejudices of their brethren, but would have the weak dealt with considerately by those who judged themselves strong in the faith. Here in Galatians, it was no question of dealing patiently with souls who had been formerly under legal bondage and were slow to unlearn; but of recalling men who never had been in that position, and who were now hankering after it. The apostle does not deal with all alike; let us learn in the school of God to do the same.
Paul appeals now to his erring children by his own former relations with them. “Brethren, I beseech you, be as I [am], for I [am] as ye: ye have not injured me at all” (ver. 12). He was free from the law, and was thus where believing Gentiles properly were. They had done him no wrong in insinuating that he was no longer under law. He had learned deliverance through the death and resurrection of Christ and gloried in it. These Galatians owed everything to him. “Ye know how through (in) infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus” (vers. 13, 14). His thorn in the flesh was a real trouble to the devoted apostle, and rendered him very despicable as a speaker in the eyes of some. But when the Spirit is at work, souls are occupied with the message, not with the messenger. Thus it had been in Galatia. Had he been an angel come straight from heaven, yea, had he been Christ Himself, they could not have received him more warmly and gratefully. His speech distilled as the dew, and those who had been poor blinded idolaters found peace and rest in Jesus through his instrumentality. Was it all a dream? “Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes, and have given them to me. Am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (vers. 15, 16). Alas how fickle is man! The same thing may be observed in the Corinthians. Paul had brought them abundance of blessing, but it took very little to alienate them seriously from him. He loved them greatly, but he was little loved in return.
As in Corinth, so in Galatia, there were those who sought deliberately to alienate the saints. Paul had his detractors in many directions. “They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them” (ver. 17). Such men sought influence among them that they might draw them after themselves away from him who had served them so well. Wretched party work! Alas! the spirit of it is not dead yet. They cared little that this would result in the Galatians losing the valuable ministry of the apostle. Self was their object, everything else was secondary.
Paul is cutting, yet the wounds of a friend are kind. “But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you” (ver. 18). How differently he could write to the Philippians! They were not only steadfast when he was among them, but much more in his absence (Phil. 2:1212Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)). They confided in the Lord, and were thus sustained; the Galatians lent an ear to the seducer and were turning aside.