Understanding Galatians 4:6-11

"AND because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. 

So that thou art no longer a bond-servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 

Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods; but 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, where-unto ye desire to be in bondage over again? 

Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
Gal. 4:6-11, R.V.

 

I. The Hebrew word for Father is Ab, as we have· it in Abraham, father of many people. The word “Abba” is a strengthened, emphatic form of this word. “Abba, Father” is, therefore, the same as “Father, Father,” with emphasis.

II. There is a difference between a bond-servant and a son. The slave can not be an heir; he can not own anything, not even himself. He has no control of himself, much less of anything else. But the sons of God must be as free as He is, for they are heirs, not only of all that God has, but of all that He is; they are heirs of God Himself. They are rulers with Him, set “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.” Compare Eph. 1:17-21 and 2:1-6. As sons of God we are masters, not slaves. 

 

III. Do not fail to note that the ''rudiments” spoken of in verse 9 are the same as those mentioned in verse 3--the rudiments of the world. What is friendship with this world?
The observation of times, that is, the practice of augury, a common thing among the heathen, was expressly forbidden by the Lord. Note in Isa. 47:10-14, with margin, the vanity and wickedness of observing months.

 

*Some will ask, “How could it be that the Galatians were going back into heathenism, when the ‘false brethren' who were perverting them were Jews?” 

The answer is easy. That they were relapsing into heathenism is evident from the fact that they were turning back to the things to which they had formerly been in bondage; and they had formerly been heathen. They never were Jews. Remember that they were being led by false brethren into “another gospel,” which was not a gospel at all. They were being led away from Christ."

Sabbath School Lesson 1900