God’s Word for You

Galatians 4:8-11 gods that aren’t gods

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, July 22, 2024

8 But back in the time when you did not know God, you were slaves to gods that by nature are not gods at all. 9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, why do you keep turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You observe special days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, that somehow my labor for you has been wasted.

We need to remind ourselves from time to time that the majority of the Galatian Christians were not Jewish by birth. They were Gentiles (Galatians 1:15, 2:2, 3:14). Before they came to faith in Christ, the Galatians had not been atheists. They had worshiped the pagan gods of central Asia Minor. Many of them were probably guilty of monolatry, which is when someone lives in a culture of multiple gods but personally worships one of them (such as Zeus) above all the others. So the Galatians used to serve gods, which Paul says are not really gods at all by nature. But the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, identify these things as demons or devils: “They must no longer offer any of their offerings to the goat-demons to which they prostitute themselves” (Leviticus 17:7); “the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20). So the Galatians used to serve demons without realizing it, and they were slaves to those demons.

But now it is different! Now they know God—or rather, Paul is quick to point out—they are known by God. The apostle could have said that differently, but he purposely corrects his grammar to make a point. The Galatians didn’t come to know God by themselves. We confess the same thing when we recite Luther’s explanation to the Third Article: “I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” On the other side of this, God’s knowledge of us is very different. He knows us, and this knowledge includes the most tender love. “I know my sheep” (John 10:14); “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Jesus speaks his word (the Scriptures, and the forgiveness we receive through the Means of Grace) and we are blessed, enlightened, justified, sanctified, and we grow in our love for him at all times.

Having all of this, why turn back to anything else? To refuse Christ is not simply to “return” to Judaism. True Judaism looked ahead to Christ; Abraham was justified on account of faith in Christ. Any Jew who rejects Christ can call himself anything he likes, but he no longer belongs to the Israel of God. His religion, devoid of Christ, is the faith of pagans who worship demons dressed up as if it is temple worship. But it’s the empty worship of a temple without the ark of the covenant, the problem David worked so hard and so long to correct. It was blood without atonement. So whatever the Galatians would be left with if they abandoned Christ’s blood shed on the cross would be a worship without any point; no forgiveness of sins, no resurrection to life, but a resurrection to eternal punishment for their unbelief. They would join the very demons in hell. The same demons that they used to worship (without knowing it) before they heard about Christ.

Paul also says that they observe “special days and months and seasons and years.” This could be the old astrological festivals of the Babylonians or Chaldeans whose influence extended into Asia Minor. Augustine thought this might be the case, or that the festivals were the Jewish holidays. For our understanding of the verse, it doesn’t matter at all which is meant, or if something else was on Paul’s mind. The fact is, without Christ, any celebration is a celebration apart from God and therefore a sinful affront to God. “They do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them” (Ezekiel 22:26).

This is a good place to remember that holidays are not commanded for Christians. There is no command to celebrate Easter, or Christmas, or New Year’s Eve, or even our own birthdays, in all of the Scriptures. We are free to do as we think best. Every day is a festival in celebration of our almighty God. We are not wrong for setting aside Sunday as the Lord’s Day, but we could have set aside any other day if the church had thought it wise. Why not Thursday, since it was the day in which he first commanded and celebrated the Lord’s Supper? Why not Monday when he separated the skies from the seas and drew the attention of all creation toward the heavens? Why not Friday, the day on which he was crucified for our sins? Why not Tuesday, for its own angelic reasons? The church sets aside its own festivals, Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Epiphany and Pentecost, for the simple reason that it’s good to follow such a cycle for the sake of our people, so that there will be regular preaching about the key parts of the Bible. But Paul is talking about the way the Galatians had set aside all of that for something pagan, something useless, and something harmful to their souls.

Paul didn’t want his work to be for nothing. He scolds them. He makes them think just how serious this sin runs, and he will bring them back again to Christ to heal all these wounds. Turn to Jesus! Bless his name, praise his compassionate deeds! Worship him, for truly he is God; there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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