The Grace Commentary – Your free verse-by-verse Bible commentary Galatians 4

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Galatians 4:1–2

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

(a) A child. For as long as the master’s son is a child, he is under the supervision of the guardian or pedagogue (see entry for Gal. 3:24).

(b) A slave. He may be the heir, but the young son is treated no different than a slave. He is told where to go and what to do. In the same way, humanity was like a slave kept under the custody of the law (Gal. 3:23).

(c) Owner. Adam and his descendants owned the whole world (Ps. 115:16), but they were treated like slaves on account of sin.

(d) Guardians watch over their master’s children, while managers or stewards oversee the master’s estate. We were kept under the guardianship or custody of the law (Gal. 3:23).

(e) Until the date. Just as a father decides when his son is ready to receive his inheritance, our heavenly Father determined the time of our liberation (Gal. 4:4).

Galatians 4:3

So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

(a) While we were children. As in the natural, so too in the spiritual. Like children, we were no different from slaves.

(b) Elemental things refer to the rules and rulers of this fallen world. We were created to rule and reign with God, but we were oppressed by the powers of darkness. God gave us the world, but in Adam we were no better than slaves.

(c) World. In context, the world (kosmos) refers to fallen humanity and godless society. It is the self-serving civilization which remains under the influence of Satan and the powers of darkness (1 John 5:19). It does not mean the natural world of forests, rivers, and mountains.

Galatians 4:4

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

(a) The fullness of the time. When the time was ripe, God sent his Son.

When Christ was born, the world was primed and ready for the gospel of our liberation. There was widespread peace (thanks to the Pax Romana), many people spoke a common language (thanks to Hellenization), and the gospel could travel far and wide (thanks to Roman roads). If Jesus had been sent from heaven to Judea a generation or two earlier, he would have arrived in a country racked with civil war that was about to be invaded by Romans. If he had been sent a generation or two later, he would have arrived in the middle of another civil war and an even bigger Roman invasion. This is not to suggest that God was reading Newsweek when he sent the Savior. Rather, the God who sees the end from the beginning picked the perfect moment to send his Son into the world.

(b) God sent forth his Son to save Adam’s enslaved family (John 3:17). He sent Jesus to redeem and adopt us (see next verse).

Because of Adam, humanity was on death row (Rom. 5:12, 18). But Jesus was not from Adam’s fallen line. On numerous occasions, he told his disciples that he was not from earth but heaven. “I have come down from heaven” (John 6:38). In other words, he had come from outside the prison.

(c) Born is not the best translation since the original verb (ginomai) means become or be made, and not born (gennētos). It is the same word Paul uses when he says Jesus was “being made in the likeness of men” (Php. 2:7). Paul uses the word twice when he says, “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus was human like us, but he was made of a woman and not born of a woman. He came from heaven to earth by way of a woman. Mary supplied the womb and the Holy Spirit provided a body (see Heb. 10:5). “She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:18).

Jesus is the eternal God, and the Creator of all (John 1:1, Col 1:15–16). Like Melchizedek, Jesus had no father or mother in the biological sense (Heb. 7:3). Neither Joseph nor Many contributed any DNA. Although fully human, Jesus was not born into Adam’s enslaved race. He was not the son of a slave, and this matters because only a free man can ransom a slave. Jesus is the free man from heaven who came to rescue you.

See entry for Virgin Birth.

(d) Born of a woman. Paul might have said that Jesus was the Son of David or the Son of Abraham or the Son of Joseph. In saying the Messiah was born (or made) of a woman, he reminds us of God’s warning to the serpent. “Her Seed shall bruise your head” (Gen. 3:15). Jesus is the Seed of woman sent to destroy the works of the evil one, and he is the Seed of Abraham sent to fulfill the good promises of God.

(e) Woman. For a letter that is often masculine in tone with its fiery rhetoric and discussion of sons and heirs, Galatians also has a strong feminine flavor. Paul was called from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15) and is in the pains of childbirth like a pregnant woman (Gal. 4:19). The old and new covenants are like the bondwoman and the free woman (Gal. 4:22–24). Jerusalem above is our mother (Gal. 4:26).

In the Hellenized world of Plato and Aristotle, it was widely believed that women were deceptive, inferior, and created to trouble men. But in Paul’s writing and ministry, women shared the stage with men. He had no interest in propagating the misogynistic stereotypes of the philosophers, but he proclaimed a new creation where men and women are equal in grace and co-heirs in Christ (Gal. 3:28).

(f) Born under the law. Jesus was born under law like the rest of us. As a human, he was born with the knowledge of good and evil – he knew the difference between right and wrong – and as a Jew, he was born under the Law of Moses. He lived and died under the law-keeping covenant. Jesus lived under the law, but on the cross he fulfilled all the requirements of the law so that we might live under grace.

Further reading: “The greatest law preacher”

Galatians 4:5

so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

(a) So that. God did not send Jesus to judge and condemn us but to redeem and adopt us.

(b) Redeem. Christ redeemed or ransomed us from sin’s captivity (Rom. 6:7); see entry for Gal. 3:13.

(c) Those who were under the law. Jesus came to redeem all humanity, not just the Jews. We were all kept in custody under one sort of law or another (Gal. 3:23), but Jesus redeemed us from every lawless deed (Tit. 2:14).

(d) Adoption as sons. Just as a Roman father would say to his son, “It’s time for you to become a man and receive your inheritance,” God has spoken to humanity. “The time of being a slave is past.”

In Roman times male householders adopted young men to make them their heirs. In the same way, God has adopted us into his family. You were part of Adam’s enslaved family, and now you are part of God’s blessed family. You are God’s heir and a fellow heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17). As an adopted son you have inherited a new identity along with all the resources of heaven.

Galatians 4:6

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

(a) You are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).

(b) The Spirit. Our adoption into the family of God is sealed or certified with the indwelling Spirit (Gal. 3:5, Eph. 1:13).

(c) Crying. The loud cry of the Son for his Father becomes our cry for the Father. It’s a cry of intimacy and love. It’s crying, “Father, I trust you because I know you love me and will never leave me. I know that whatever trials I face, you will be with me, and nothing will ever separate me from your love.” The Spirit of Christ within us does not cry “stop sinning” or “work harder” but “my Father!”

(d) Abba is the Aramaic word for father. Abba is a word of familial intimacy. On each of the three occasions Abba appears in the Bible, it is in the context of crying out to God in prayer (Mark 14:36, Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6).

Galatians 4:7

Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

(a) You are no longer a slave to sin because you have been redeemed and adopted into the family of God.

(b) But a son. For the fourth time, Paul reminds us that we are sons of God (Gal. 3:26, 4:5–6). We are not slaves or transient workers, but permanent members of God’s household (John 8:35).

(d) Through God. The plan to rescue and adopt you was God’s idea and God’s doing. He sent the Son and the Spirit (Gal. 4:4, 6). Everything that happened was “according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4).

Galatians 4:8

However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

(a) At that time. Before you received the gospel of Christ.

(b) When you did not know God. When you did not know Jesus Christ. Some people claim to know God but the only way to know the Father is through the Son (Matt. 11:27).

In the Gentile societies of the New Testament, life revolved around the worship of local deities. Public meetings opened with prayers and offerings to the patron god of the town, while trade guilds and farmers made sacrifices at the temple. Idol worship was not one aspect of life, but a chain wrapped around all. It may seem quaint to modern eyes, but little has changed. Today, life revolves around the worship of wealth, celebrity, and power. In the desire for security, people make sacrifices in temples of commerce and learning. The gods may have changed, but people remain as enslaved as ever.

(d) No gods. Idols hewn from silver or silicon are mere inventions (see Ps. 115:3–4). They do not see, speak, or hear, and those who are foolish enough to trust them become senseless like them (Ps. 115:8. Jer. 10:8).

Galatians 4:9

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

(a) Come to know God. You came to know God the day you put your faith in Jesus. To know Christ is to know God (John 14:6, 9).

(b) Or rather. More importantly, God knows you.

(d) How is it that you turn back? If you know the true God, why would you turn back to things that are not gods? If you have tasted freedom, why would you submit again to the yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1)?

The Galatians weren’t going back to the pagan temples, they were turning to the synagogues. But the Law of Moses had no more power to save them than the idols of wood and stone they had abandoned. They were exchanging one form of tyranny (idol worship) for another (law-keeping).

(e) Weak and worthless. Just as the false gods of this world cannot compare to the Almighty Creator, old covenant shadows are no substitute for new covenant realities. Although the law is good and holy, it is weak and worthless when it comes to imparting life.

(f) Elemental things; see entry for Gal. 4:3.

(g) You desire to be enslaved. A desire to live under law is a desire to be a slave.

Galatians 4:10–11

You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

(a) Days and months such as the Sabbath, the Day of Atonement, New Moon feasts, the Feast of Weeks, the Seventh Month Festival, and other events in the Jewish calendar. In addition to circumcision, the law teachers were encouraging the Galatians to observe the Jewish worship calendar. Dietary restrictions and other rules were sure to follow.

Celebrating special days is an entry point for many religions. Who wouldn’t want to partake of a delicious Passover meal? But a feast can hide a hook. “If you want to be an elite-level Christian, you need to observe Lent, attend the midnight mass, take your family to our National Day of Prayer, support our Missions Month, sign up for the Easter outreach, and perform in the Christmas pageant.”

Should Christians celebrate special days and seasons? In the new covenant, there is no law that says you must. Do we need to observe the Lord’s Day? Some do, some don’t. Let each one be convinced in their own mind (Rom. 14:5). Special days and seasons can be opportunities to celebrate what God has done, but observing them, or not observing them, does not make you more or less righteous.

(b) I fear for you. Paul is alarmed over the Galatians. His concern is not that they will lose their salvation, but that they will lose their freedom (Gal. 5:1). If they put themselves under law, they will still be part of God’s family, but Christ will be of no benefit to them (Gal. 5:2). They will be sons who live like slaves.

(c) Vain. “I’m concerned that my good work among you is being undone.” Paul endured the hardships of traveling and preaching so that the Galatians might be free. If they used their hard-won freedom to become slaves again, what was the point?

Galatians 4:12

I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;

(a) Brethren. “My brothers and sisters in Christ;” see entry for Gal. 1:11.

(b) Become as I am. “Be free from the law, like me” (see Gal. 2:19a). “Live for God, like me” (see Gal. 2:19b). “Live in union with Christ, like me” (see Gal. 2:20).

Paul often encouraged others to follow his example (1 Cor. 4:16, Php. 3:17, 1 Th. 1:6, 2 Th. 3:7, 9). “Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

The law teachers were trying to convince the Galatians to become more Jewish like them. Paul makes the opposite plea: “I became like one of you to persuade you about Christ.” For the sake of the gospel Paul became all things to all people. To the Jews he became a Jew in order to win Jews. To the Galatians he became a Galatian so that he might win Galatians (see 1 Cor. 9:19–22).

(d) No wrong. “You did not mistreat me when we met, so don’t start now.”

Galatians 4:13

but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;

(a) Illness. The original noun for illness (astheneia) means weakness and this is how it is translated in other scriptures (e.g., 1 Cor. 2:3). Paul was not ill but wounded and weakened after being stoned half to death (Acts 14:19).

(b) The gospel; see entry for Gal. 1:7.

(c) The first time. On his first visit to Galatia, Paul was opposed by religious Jews. In Lystra they stoned him and left him for dead. But Paul got up and limped to Derbe where he continued preaching the gospel (Acts 14:20). The sight of a battered and bruised apostle proclaiming the life that is ours in Christ attracted attention. Crowds gathered and many Gentiles were won for the Lord (Acts 14:21).

Galatians 4:14

and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

(a) A trial to you. By supporting Paul during his recovery, the Galatian believers risked the ire of the murderous Jews.

(b) Bodily condition. Paul bore the cuts and bruises of his stoning (see previous verse).

(d) As Christ Jesus. Indeed, they received Paul with the same honor and respect they would have given to the Lord himself (Matt. 10:40).

We should not be surprised by the Galatians’ response to Paul. When we proclaim the gospel we are acting as Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making an appeal through us (2 Cor. 5:20). To those who are lost, the good news elicits great joy (Luke 2:10). Happy are those who hear it, and how welcome are those who share it (Rom. 10:15)!

Galatians 4:15

Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.

(a) Blessing. “What happened to us?” Paul had enjoyed a sweet friendship with the Galatians (see previous verse), but someone had turned the Galatians against him (see next verse).

(b) Plucked out your eyes. This figure of speech captures the Galatians’ generosity and goodwill towards Paul. It is akin to “you would’ve given your right arm for me.” Perhaps Paul’s eyes had been damaged in the vicious stoning he received in Lystra (Acts 14:19).

Galatians 4:16

So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

(a) Your enemy. Legalism turns friends into enemies.

The Galatians received Paul as an angel of the Lord, but their hearts had been turned against him by the poisonous words of the law teachers. Sadly, it was not uncommon for Paul to be slandered by those who opposed his message of grace (e.g., Rom. 3:8).

(b) The truth. The gospel that brings freedom.

Galatians 4:17

They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.

(a) They eagerly seek you. Convincing you to live under law makes the law teachers appear successful. But their zeal is misguided.

(b) Not commendably. Their motives are rotten. They are not trying to help you. They are trying to make a name for themselves (see entry for Gal. 6:12).

(c) Shut you out. Like the Pharisees, law teachers shut people out of the kingdom of God (Matt. 23:13). They are like burly bouncers who hinder people from entering. “You can’t come in here looking like that. You need to get circumcised or cleaned up or straightened out before you approach the Lord.”

(d) You will seek them. They position themselves as doorkeepers to the kingdom, hoping you will turn to them for guidance and acceptance when you should be looking to the Lord.

Galatians 4:18

But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you.

(a) Eagerly sought. It is always nice when people show an interest in you, provided they do it with pure motives.

(b) Not only when I am present. “When I was with you, you received me like an angel of God (see Gal. 4:14). If only you showed me the same love when I am not with you.”

Galatians 4:19

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

(a) My children. Paul reminds the Galatians that he is their spiritual parent. Unlike the law teachers who are using them to build their reputations, he deeply cares for them.

(b) In labor. “I am in the pains of childbirth.” To the Corinthians, Paul was a spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:15). But to the Galatians (and the Thessalonians; see 1 Th. 2:7), he was a spiritual mother.

Galatians 4:20

but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

(a) Present with you now. If Paul had been in Galatia, he could have confronted the problem head-on, just as he had with Peter. He probably wrote this letter in Antioch, but he would return to Galatia soon (Acts 15:36).

(b) Change my tone. “I wish we could have this conversation face to face. Some things are better said in person.”

Galatians 4:21

Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?

(a) You who want to be under law. “You who are trying to be justified through the law rather than by faith in Christ.”

(b) Listen to the law. “You who wish to obey the law, are you familiar with the whole story? Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

Paul proceeds to tell the story of Hagar the bondwoman and her son who were cast out of Abraham’s home. This story is recorded in Genesis, so in this context “the law” refers to the Book of the Law or the Torah, the first five books of the Bible (Gal. 3:10).

Galatians 4:22–23

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

(a) It is written. The story of Abraham and his two sons comes from Genesis 16 and 21. See also the entry for Gal. 3:13.

(b) Abraham was the great Patriarch of the Jews; see entry for Gal. 3:6.

(c) Two sons. Ishmael and Isaac. God had promised Abraham a son when Abraham was old and Sarah was barren. When the promise did not immediately come to pass, Sarah suggested that Abraham sleep with her maid, an Egyptian slave called Hagar. The fruit of that faithless union was a boy called Ishmael. Thirteen years later, Sarah miraculously became pregnant in her old age and Isaac was born. God told Abraham that Isaac, not Ishmael, was the son he had promised (Gen 17:19–21).

(d) The bondwoman was Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. In this analogy, Hagar represents self-effort and the work of the flesh. She stands for the law-keeping covenant and the religion built around it (see next verse).

(e) The free woman was Sarah, the mother of Isaac. Although she initially doubted the Lord’s word, and sought to make a child after the flesh, she became a woman of faith (Heb. 11:11). In this analogy, Sarah represents the new covenant.

(f) Born according to the flesh. Ishmael, the son of the slave, was birthed through human effort. It was Sarah’s faithless plan and Abraham’s shameful work that brought forth the child. For this reason, the name “Ishmael” has become synonymous with faithless works of the flesh. “I thought I was doing the Lord’s work, but I was really creating an Ishmael.”

(g) Through the promise. The birth of the promised son, Isaac, came through the divine intervention of the Lord (Gal. 4:29). Isaac, the promised son, came about by a work of the Spirit.

Galatians 4:24

This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.

(a) Allegorically speaking. Figuratively speaking.

(b) Two covenants. The two women, Hagar and Sarah, represent the old covenant and the new covenant. Their children, Ishmael and Isaac, represent the people under those covenants (the enslaved and the free).

(d) Bearing children who are to be slaves. The fruit of law is bondage.

(e) She is Hagar. The law teachers saw themselves as descendants of Abraham and Sarah (John 8:39), but they were the spiritual offspring of Hagar the bondwoman. They were slaves with no inheritance in Abraham’s family.

Galatians 4:25

Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

(a) Hagar is Mount Sinai. The slave woman represents the law-keeping covenant that began at Sinai. Just as a slave gives birth to slaves, the law leads to bondage (Gal. 5:1).

(b) Arabia is the ancestral home of the Arabic descendants of Ishmael. See also the entry for Gal. 1:17.

(c) The present Jerusalem is the home of Judaism and the source of all the trouble. Men from Jerusalem had come to Antioch preaching law (Gal. 2:12). Now the Jewish religion was infiltrating Galatia.

(d) Slavery. Those who preach law are in bondage and are trying to enslave you (Gal. 5:1).

Galatians 4:26

But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

(a) Jerusalem above. The holy city, the Jerusalem that comes down from above, represents the kingdom of God on earth (Rev. 21:1–2). In the present age, the heavenly city is represented by the church, the vast family of believers drawn from every nation (see next verse).

(b) Free. Earthly Jerusalem (the Jewish religion of law-keeping) is enslaved to sin, but heavenly Jerusalem is free. We are the free sons of God and the free citizens of Jerusalem above (Php. 3:20). In Christ, we are free from sin, free from law, and free to live as dearly loved sons of God.

Galatians 4:27

For it is written, “Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; For more numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.”

(a) It is written. The quote comes from Isaiah 54:1 in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament). See also the entry for Gal. 3:13.

(b) Rejoice. Sarah laughed in disbelief when she heard the Lord’s promise of a son (Gen. 18:12), but when her son was born she laughed with joy (Gen. 21:6). Joy is the fruit of living in the fulfilled promises of God. Joy is the default setting of the believer who trusts in the Lord (Php. 4:4).

(d) Numerous. The vast and uncountably large family of God (see Rev. 7:9).

Galatians 4:28

And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.

(a) Brethren. “My brothers and sisters in Christ;” see entry for Gal. 1:11.

(b) Children of promise. Believers are the big family God promised to Abraham. Those who belong to Christ are the true descendants of Abraham and the fulfillment of God’s promise (Rom. 4:11).

Galatians 4:29

But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

(a) Persecuted him. Just as Ishmael mocked Isaac (see Gen. 21:9), the children of the flesh (religious folk) cannot abide the sons of the free (believers who are walking in grace).

The original verb for persecuted (diōkō) means to pursue and put to flight. It is the same word Paul uses to describe his own violent persecution of the church (Gal. 1:13, 23). Religious, legalistic-types are often hostile towards those who embrace grace.

(b) Born according to the Spirit. Isaac’s birth was spiritual and miraculous as is the new birth of every believer (John 3:5).

(d) So it is now also. Put your faith in the Lord, and you will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). It has been this way since Cain killed Abel.

Galatians 4:30

But what does the Scripture say?
“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON,
FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”

(a) The Scripture. The quote is from Genesis 21:10.

(b) Cast out the bondwoman. Cast out the law teachers.

Sarah gave instructions to “cast out the bondwoman.” She wanted Hagar and her illegitimate son gone from Abraham’s household because she knew the son of the slave would always crave Isaac’s inheritance. For as long as Ishmael remained, Isaac would never know peace.

Like Sarah, we need to banish from our hearts any suggestion that we must live by the law. Heed those who preach law, and you will lose your freedom and have no peace. Flesh cannot coexist with faith.

(c) Shall not be an heir. Just as Ishmael had no share in Isaac’s inheritance, those who are in bondage to the law are incapable of receiving all that Christ offers them.

(d) The free woman; see next verse.

Galatians 4:31

So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.

(a) Brethren; “My brothers and sisters in Christ;” see entry for Gal. 1:11.

(b) A bondwoman. We are not the enslaved sons of the law (symbolized by Hagar, Ishmael, and the earthly Jerusalem).

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Galatians 4