DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 1
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22 GALATIANS 4 - COMMENTARY
BIBLE TEXT v. 3: “[…] the expression refers to the elementary principles the Galatians previously Galatians 4:1-11 (ESV) followed, which for Jews would be the Mosaic 4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the law and for Gentiles the basic concepts of their 2 3 owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In pagan religions. But the additional overtones of the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the demonic bondage in this phrase should not be 4 world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born ignored; they were, in terms of their mind-set 5 under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as and life situation, under a legalistic system and 6 sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, enslaved.”1 “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. 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.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS Galatians 4:1-11 Notice the words “slave” and “enslaved” (vv. 1, 3, 7, 8, 9). What words are used to contrast with “slave” and “enslaved” to show the Galatians what God has done through Christ? What enslaves people apart from Christ? Reflect on the meaning of the word “heir” and the fact that through Jesus we have become sons, and therefore, heirs of God. What would it look like for me to deeply embrace this truth and live out its implications? Reflect on the words in v. 9: “you have come … to be known by God.” What impact does this truth have on my life?
PERSONAL PRAYER Please write out a brief prayer based on today’s DT.
1 ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2251. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 2
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23 GALATIANS 4 - COMMENTARY
BIBLE TEXT v. 12: “The ancient Mediterranean world took role modeling very seriously. To assess the Galatians 4:12-31 (ESV) meaning or truth of any philosophy, it was 12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no necessary to examine the lives of its exponents. wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, This cultural assumption was carried over into 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me the early church; the meaning of the gospel was as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to to be embodied in the lives of the community’s you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then leaders. Paul has modeled a life set free from the become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good Law, a life willing to sacrifice all claims of racial purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be or ethnic privilege for the truth of the gospel that made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, calls Jews and Gentiles together at one table. for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could […] But we also need living embodiments of the be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. gospel in our own time, real people in our Example of Hagar and Sarah communities to whom we can point and say, 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written ‘There is what a life lived faithfully in Christ that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of looks like.’ […] This may appear disturbingly the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through antidemocratic, because it necessarily implies promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is that some people among us know better than from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in others how to practice the faith. Christian Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But fidelity is not just a matter of untutored intuition the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, so that everybody’s opinion about it is of equal worth; rather, discipleship is a craft that must be “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; learned from others with superior knowledge and break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! experience.”2 For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” vv. 13-14: “The exact nature of the ‘[bodily 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was ailment]’ that Paul is referring to is not known. born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is Although the NIV translates the Greek term as now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of ‘illness’, the actual word is more along the lines the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not of NRSV’s ‘weakness of the flesh.’ This is the children of the slave but of the free woman. same word used in 2 Cor 12:9 which is translated as ‘weakness’ in the NIV. Some have suggested REFLECTION QUESTIONS that it was a form of chronic illness while others have speculated that Paul was referring to the Galatians 4:12-16 injuries and scars from the physical persecution Think about the words in v. 16: “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” he often received (cf. Gal 6:17; Acts 14:19; 2 Somehow, Apostle Paul’s opposition to the teachings of the Judaizers made some in the Cor 6:4-5; 11:23-25).”3 Galatian church think of him as their enemy. Reflect on my own response to people who 2 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 298. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 3
3 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 294. 4 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 294. 5 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 297. 6 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 307. 7 ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2253. 8 ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2253. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 4
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24 GALATIANS 5- COMMENTARY
BIBLE TEXT vv. 5-6: “This is the clearest statement in the Galatians 5:1-15 (ESV) letter that the rectification in which we trust Christ Has Set Us Free remains a future hope. We look to the future, 5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of trusting that God will set all things right in the slavery. end. The apocalyptic language of ‘[eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness]’ characterizes our 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. longing for God’s new world, a world that we 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole hope for but do not yet see. … This tension is a 4 law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away fundamental truth about life in Christ, as we live 5 from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of in the strange time between his resurrection and 6 righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, his coming again in glory.”9 but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not vv. 13-15: “Far from the Christian life being from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the enslaving, it is the only way to resist the various Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, slaveries offered by the world. But this does not whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In mean that Christians can do whatever they feel that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would like doing (which itself is just another form of emasculate themselves! slavery). Rather, serving and loving others is the 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for route to escaping bondage and fulfilling the 10 the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You ultimate content of the law.” shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS Galatians 5:1-6, 13-15 Note the theme of freedom and slavery in this passage. Apostle Paul warns them that “if you accept circumcision” then you would be “obligated to keep the whole law.” How is keeping the “whole law” slavery when the “whole law” expresses God’s decrees set forth in Scripture? If Christ set us free from the law, but if this does not mean that we are free to live an unbounded life that recognizes no curbs on our desires, what constitutes the new life of freedom (vv. 6, 13-15)? What command are we who are “called to freedom,” to obey, and who are we called to “serve” (vv. 13-15)? How has the gospel enabled me to live in this kind of freedom?
9 Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 318. 10 ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2255. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 5
PERSONAL PRAYER Please write out a brief prayer based on today’s DT. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 6
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25
BIBLE TEXT Galatians 5:1-15 (ESV) Christ Has Set Us Free 5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS Galatians 5:13-15 How is the use of freedom for Christians radically different from the way of the world? Reflect on how I’ve been using my God-given freedom. In what ways can I increase in loving my neighbor as myself? How will this lead to greater freedom?
Reflect once again on the call to love from the passages below: Galatians 5:6, 13-15 (ESV) 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Romans 13:8–10 (ESV) 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
John 13:34–35 (ESV) DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 7
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
PERSONAL PRAYER Please write out a brief prayer based on today’s DT. DEVOTION TIME: 2012 Devotions: Galatians 4-5a October 22 – October 27, 2012 8
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26
BIBLE TEXT Galatians 5:7-12 (ESV) 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS Galatians 5:7-12 Reflect on the picture painted here of what happened to the Galatians, and the warnings relevant for me. What is the “offense of the cross” in v. 11? (i.e., given that Apostle Paul’s main persecutors were Jews, and pseudo-Christian Jews, what is it about the cross that they found so offensive from within their understanding of God?) Reflect on the intensity of these words, and some of the harsh language employed by Apostle Paul and what this reveals about his heart and the nature of ministry, and how this applies to me.
PERSONAL PRAYER Please write out a brief prayer based on today’s DT.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27
REFLECTION Review the past week’s DT.
PERSONAL PRAYER Please write out a brief prayer based on today’s DT.