Galatians 4 - Introduction

IV.

(1-31) The present chapter continues the argument of the last. St. Paul had been reproaching the Galatians with their relapse. They had fallen back from a spiritual system to a material system; from a system that brought blessing to a system that brought a curse; from faith and the promise to the Law; from the freedom of the adult man to the constraint and discipline of the minor. Now the idea of constraint and freedom is taken up and carried out further. It is treated directly in the first seven and last eleven verses, and forms the link of transition to the next chapter, the opening key-note of which is “freedom.” The middle portion of Galatians 4 is somewhat of a personal digression, the object of which, however, is really to support this view of the opposition between the Apostle and the Judaising party as one between liberty on the one hand and slavery on the other. In the first section (Galatians 4:8) the Apostle expresses his surprise that the Galatians could descend from the height they had reached to anything so poor, so narrow, and so enslaving. A rush of personal feeling comes over him, and he goes on to remind them of the warm and eager welcome that they had given him when he first came among them, and of the contrast between their Judaising troublers and himself. His old feelings return, and his heart goes out towards them. On this tide of emotion the concluding arguments of the chapter are carried home.