The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.” 1 Cor. 12:2. Even so it was with the Galatians. To them he wrote, “Not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” If this fact is borne in mind, it will save the reader from falling into some very common errors in opinion concerning this Epistle. The Galatians had been heathen, worshiping idols, and in bondage to the most degrading superstitions. Bear in mind that this bondage is the same as that which is spoken of in the preceding chapter,—they were “shut up” under the law. It was the very same bondage in which all unconverted persons are, for in the second and third chapters of Romans we are told that “there is no difference; for all have sinned.” The Jews themselves, who did not know the Lord by personal experience, were in the same bondage,—the bondage of sin. “Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin.” John 8:34, R. V. And “he that committeth sin is of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.” 1 Cor. 10:20. If a man is not a Christian, he is a heathen; there is no middle ground. If the Christian apostatizes, he immediately becomes a heathen. We ourselves once walked “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), and we “were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another” (Titus 3:3, R. V.). So we also were “in bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” The meaner the master, the worse the bondage. What language can depict the horror of being in bondage to corruption itself?
In Love with Bondage.
“Now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?” Is it not strange that men should be in love with chains? Christ has proclaimed “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1), saying to the prisoners, “Go forth,” and to them that are in darkness, “Show yourselves” (Isa. 49:9); yet men who have heard these words, and have come forth, and have seen the light of “the Sun of Righteousness,” and have tasted the sweets of liberty, actually turn round and go back into their prison, submit to be bound with their old chains, even fondling them, and labor away at the hard treadmill of sin. Who has not had something of that experience? It is no fancy picture. It is a fact that men can come to love the most revolting things, even death itself; for Wisdom says, “All they that hate Me love death.” Prov. 8:36. In the Epistle to the Galatians we have a vivid picture of human experience.
Observing Heathen Customs.
“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” This was an evidence of their bondage. “Ah,” says some one, “they had gone back to the old Jewish Sabbath; that was the bondage against which Paul would warn us!” How strange it is that men have such an insane hatred of the Sabbath, which the Lord Himself gave to the Jews, in common with all other people on the earth, that they will seize upon every word that they think they can turn against it, although in order to do so they must shut their eyes to all the words that are around it! Anybody who reads the Epistle to the Galatians, and thinks as he reads, must know that the Galatians were not Jews. They had been converted from heathenism. Therefore, previous to their conversion they had never had anything to do with any religious custom that was practised by the Jews. They had nothing whatever in common with the Jews. Consequently, when they turned again to the “weak and beggarly elements” to which they were willing again to be in bondage, it is evident that they were not going back to any Jewish practise. They were going back to their old heathen customs. “But were not the men who were perverting them Jews?”—Yes, they were. But remember this one thing, when you seek to turn a man away from Christ to some substitute for Christ, you can not tell where he will end. You can not make him stop just where you want him to. If a converted drunkard loses faith in Christ, he will take up his drinking habits as surely as he lives, even though the Lord may have taken the appetite away from him. So when these “false brethren”—Jewish opposers of “the truth of the Gospel” as it is in Christ—succeeded in seducing the Galatians from Christ, they could not get them to stop with Jewish ceremonies. No; they inevitably drifted back to their old heathen superstitions.
Forbidden Practises.
Read the tenth verse again, and then read Deut. 18:10: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.” Now read what the Lord says to the heathen who would shield themselves from just judgment that is about to come upon them: “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” Isa. 47:13. Here we see that the very things to which the Galatians were returning, were forbidden by the Lord when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Now we might as well say that when God forbade these things He was warning the Israelites against keeping the Sabbath, as to say that Paul was upbraiding the Galatians for keeping it, or that he had any reference to it whatever. God forbade these things at the very time when He gave the commandment concerning Sabbath-keeping. So far back into their old ways had the Galatians gone that Paul was afraid lest all his labor on them had been in vain. They were forsaking God and returning to “the weak and beggarly elements of the world,” which no reverent person can think of as ever having had any connection with God. They were changing their glory for “that which doth not profit” (Jer. 2:11); for “the customs of the heathen are vain.”
There is just as much danger for us in this respect as there ever was for any people. Whoever trusts in himself, having any confidence whatever in the flesh, is worshiping the works of his own hands instead of God, just as truly as does any one who makes and bows down to a graven image. It is so easy for a man to trust to his own supposed shrewdness, to his ability to “take care of himself,” and to forget that the thoughts even of the wise are vain, and that there is no power but of God. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” Jer. 9:23, 24.
The Messenger Not Personally Affronted.
“He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” John 3:34. The apostle Paul was sent by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and did not speak his own words. He was a messenger, bearing a message from God, and not from any man. The work was not his, nor any other man’s, but God’s, and he was but the humble instrument, the earthen vessel, which God had chosen as the means of carrying His glorious Gospel of grace. Therefore, Paul did not feel affronted when his message was unheeded or even rejected. “Ye have not injured me at all,” he says. He did not regret the labor that he had bestowed upon the Galatians, on his own account, as though it were so much of his time wasted; but he was fearful for them, lest his labor had been in vain as far as they were concerned. The man who from the heart can say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake” (Ps. 115:1), can not feel personally injured if his message is not received. Whoever becomes irritated or angry when his teaching is slighted or ignored or scornfully rejected, shows either that he has forgotten that it was God’s words that he was speaking, or else that he had mingled with them or substituted for them words of his own. This is what has led to all the persecution that has disgraced the professed Christian church. Men have arisen speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves, and when their sayings and customs were not heeded, they have been offended, and have visited their vengeance on the so-called heretics. No one in all the ages has ever suffered persecution for failure to obey the commandments of God, but only for neglect of human customs and traditions. It is a grand thing always to be zealous in a good thing, but let the zeal be according to sanctified knowledge. The zealous person should frequently ask himself, Whose servant am I? If he is God’s servant, then he will be content with delivering the message that God has given him, leaving vengeance to God, to whom it belongs.