Galatians 4:8-20--Paul's Concern for the Galatians

Paul's Concern for the Galatians​
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

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The question once again is posed to the Galatians--Why would you want to go back to the way things were before God saved you and set you free?  Paul calls these principles they are turning back to "weak," "worthless," "elementary," and "of the world."  Apparently, they are getting caught up once again in the pagan worship that is focused so much on the changing of the seasons and the lunar and solar cycles.  While God did say in Genesis 1:14, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years," it was never His intent for us to worship these objects or to turn to astrology or any other form of worshiping the creation rather than the Creator.  Paul fears that these Galatians may have been like the seed planted on rocky soil that sprang up quickly and looked like they were healthy, but they had no depth of soil and no root, so they quickly turned away and he wonders if any of them that have done this were ever really saved--though he still must believe in some sense that they are saved because he continues to call them "brothers" as we continue.

Paul, like in so many other places in his epistles, encourages these Christians to use him as an example and to model him as he continues to model Christ.  Apparently Paul lived among them for a while due to some ailment and became one of them (culturally) for a time.  They took him in and showed hospitality to him, and this was how he first had the opportunity to share the gospel with them--because God orchestrated the events so that Paul's sickness would give him the opportunity to do so.  But Paul wonders what has become of this friendship?  Are they now going to be enemies because Paul has clung to the true gospel while they have turned to a false gospel?

It gets a little confusing who the "they" are here in the next few verses if you haven't been reading the entire letter.  Remember the context that there are a group of Jews who say they are believers (Paul seems to differ with that and says they believe and preach a false gospel and that there's a special place in hell for them for doing what they are doing) who are going around behind Paul to the Christians that he's evangelized and discipled and telling them that Paul missed something and that you first have to become a Jew before you can become a Christian and that you must continue to obey the Law (the moral, ceremonial, and sacrificial law...all of it) in order to be saved--that somehow it is your works in addition to your faith that saves you.  In other places in the Bible, you may see this group called the Judaisers, and that's what I've been calling them, because they are trying to take the Christians and turn them back to Judaism.  Paul is arguing that these Judaisers really have no lover or concern for the Galatians, but they are "making much" of the Galatians right now (flattery) for an evil purpose--so that the Gentile Galatians will be shut out of the kingdom of God!  Isn't that awful that some people would be actively working to make sure that certain people aren't saved?

Why would anyone do such a thing?  Apparently for their own benefit.  Apparently they are jealous of the attention that Paul has received as a teacher and they want that kind of notoriety for themselves, and there seems to be some indication here and in other epistles of Paul that these false teachers were about fleecing the flock and taking their money--not that different from many of the false teachers today who are known by their greed--which we will see is not a fruit of the Spirit, but an evidence of the flesh (yes, that will be part of the book of Galatians here in a little bit because Paul will tell them how to recognize the "real" and the "fake" Christians by what controls their lives--the flesh or the Spirit).

Paul considers these young, immature Christians his spiritual children that he anguishes for like a mother does for the one that she bore in painful childbirth.  You will never stop a mother from thinking of her children and her "babies" even when they get older and become adults and you will never stop her from wanting to step in and take care of them and fix things so that they don't have to feel pain or make mistakes--it's just the nature of a mother to do so.  In the same way, Paul feels this way for the Galatians, and he wishes he could fight this battle for them and make them understand and do the right thing.  He wishes he could be present with them and speak to them in a way where they could hear his love and concern, but he knows that all is going to come through in his letter is his frustration and indignation.  Yet, he hopes from the time that they have had together in the past that they remember his great lover for them and that they remember that these words too are spoken out of love and concern for their spiritual well-being.