Living as a Slave or as a Child of God

 

Living as a Slave or as a Child of God

Galatians 4:8-11

 

Verse 8 says, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those things that by nature are not gods.”

 

In Bob Dylan’s song, You Gotta Serve Somebody, he says that all of us will serve someone or something. Paul is saying a similar thing in this verse. The Galatian Christians had in the past served things that were not gods. They had been enslaved to those things & they had served them because they did not serve the one true God.

 

We are to serve the one true God & turn away from serving anyone or anything that is not the true God. We can only do that as we surrender our lives to Jesus as Savior & Lord & come to know God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about giving our lives to Jesus & through Him, come to know the one true God.

 

Verse 9 says, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”

 

Being a Christian is about having a personal, loving, & intimate relationship with Jesus. It is about knowing Him, but also being known by Him. God wants that for us because it is the best thing for us, now & for eternity. When we trust the things of this world, we become enslaved to them & they are weak & worthless. Jesus is powerful & the most valuable person in all of creation.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about having an intimate relationship with the most powerful & valuable person in all creation, Jesus.

 

Verses 10 & 11 say, “You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”

 

The Galatian Christians have come to know God through God’s grace & through their faith in Jesus. Now, they seemed to be turning back to religious rituals & rules & traditions. All that Paul had taught them & modeled for them seems to have been in vain.

 

We also need to be careful that we don’t depend on religious rituals or rules or traditions to bring salvation or to make us holy. I love God’s church, but church involvement does not bring salvation or make us holy. Observing certain religious celebrations does not bring salvation or make us holy. Having a family heritage of Christianity does not bring salvation or make us holy. It is a personal relationship with Jesus as our Savior & Lord that brings salvation & makes us holy.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about relationship, not religion.

 

The Galatian Christians had abandoned liberty in Jesus for bondage to religion with no relationship with God. They were giving up the power of the gospel for the weakness of religion, & the wealth of the gospel for the poverty of religion. Let us not be guilty of doing the same thing.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe