Galatians · chapter 4 of 6
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Galatians 4 explains that God sent his Son in the fullness of time to redeem those under the law, so that believers are no longer slaves but sons and heirs who cry Abba, Father. Paul is concerned that the Galatians want to return to slavery, reminds them of their warm welcome and uses Hagar and Sarah as an illustration: believers are children of the promise and of the free woman.
After showing in chapter 3 that faith and the promise come before the law, Paul applies that truth to the lives of the Galatians. Galatians 4 combines doctrine, a deeply affectionate personal appeal and an illustration from Genesis, all aimed at keeping them from returning to slavery.
Paul compares the underage heir to a slave: though owner of everything, he is under guardians until the date set by his father. So also we were enslaved under the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father. You are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Paul wonders how the Galatians, who once served those who are not gods, now that God knows them, want to turn back to the weak elementary principles by observing days, months, seasons and years. He fears he has labored in vain.
He addresses them with affection: he asks them to become as he is, for he became as they are. He recalls that he first preached to them because of a bodily illness and that they welcomed him as an angel of God; they would have given him their very eyes. Now he fears he is their enemy for telling the truth. Those who court them do not do so for good. Paul is in labor pains until Christ is formed in them, and he is perplexed.
Finally he illustrates with the story of Abraham, who had one son by the slave woman and another by the free woman. The son of the slave was born according to the flesh; the son of the free woman, through the promise. Paul sees an allegory of two covenants: Hagar corresponds to Mount Sinai and the present Jerusalem, enslaved with her children, and Sarah to the Jerusalem above, free and our mother. Quoting Isaiah, he calls the barren woman to rejoice. Like Isaac, believers are children of the promise; and as the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. Scripture says to cast out the slave woman and her son. Believers are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of woman and under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption. Christ became fully human and placed himself under the law in order to rescue us.
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. The believer's trusting prayer is the Spirit's work and proof that he belongs to God's family.
Paul compares his anguish to labor pains until Christ is formed in the Galatians. It shows that the goal of ministry is not only to correct doctrine but to see the character of Christ grow in people's lives.
He concludes that believers are not children of the slave but of the free woman. The allegory aims to make the Galatians see themselves as free children through the promise and not submit again to a yoke.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Born of woman, born under the law. — Galatians 4:4
Answer: To redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. — Galatians 4:5
Answer: Abba, Father. — Galatians 4:6
Answer: That his labor among them may have been in vain. — Galatians 4:10-11
Answer: They welcomed him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus, though his illness was a trial to them. — Galatians 4:13-14
Answer: Of the free woman, not of the slave. — Galatians 4:31
Galatians 4 reminds us who we are: children of God with access to the Father, not servants who must earn his favor. In a small group you can talk about what changes in prayer and obedience when we live as a beloved child rather than as someone afraid of failing.
It also shows the heart of a good pastor and teacher. Paul does not only correct: he recalls past affection, grieves over them and longs for Christ to be formed in their lives. A Sunday school teacher can ask whether the goal is to pass on information or to accompany people as they grow in Christ. And the illustration of Hagar and Sarah invites us to tell apart trusting our own strength from resting in what God has promised.
Galatians 4 ends with the affirmation that believers are children of the free woman. In chapter 5, Paul will draw the practical consequence: Christ set us free for freedom, and that freedom is lived out in love and by the Spirit.
The term can be understood as the rudiments or basic teachings of religion and human life without Christ, or as spiritual powers served by pagans. Either way, Paul says that going back to them, whether through the law or old cults, is a return to slavery.
Paul mentions a bodily illness that was the occasion of his first preaching and says the Galatians would have given him their very eyes, but he does not say what it was. Some think of an eye problem, but the text does not state it, so it is wiser not to give a confident answer.
Paul does not deny that the story of Genesis happened; he uses it as an illustration of two covenants, one of slavery and one of freedom by promise. His opponents, who appealed to the law and to Abraham, are thus confronted with their own text. It is Paul's apostolic reading, not a license to interpret any passage freely.