Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 4:8-20…
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
The Appeal of the Apostle
Preachers really should not get involved in politics. According to the New York Times, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale favored Republicans. In 1956, he assailed the Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, because he had been divorced. But Stevenson got the better of Peale. He responded, “I find the Apostle Paul appealing and the Apostle Peale appalling.”
All kidding aside, I want to talk with you today about the appeal of Paul. Paul makes an appeal to the Galatians in chapter 4, verse 12. He says, “I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.”
Paul’s appeal has two parts to it. First, he says, become like me. Paul wanted the Galatians to become like him in terms of his faith in Jesus Christ. He wanted them to be delivered from the influence of the false teachers who were telling them they needed to obey the law to be accepted by Jesus. In short, Paul wanted the Galatians to be like him in terms of the freedom he had discovered in a relationship with Christ.
Paul made a similar appeal to King Agrippa. You may remember the story from Acts 26. Paul was in prison in Caesarea by the Sea. King Agrippa was brought in to help adjudicate Paul’s case. And Paul used his hearing before King Agrippa to tell Agrippa about Jesus. That’s boldness.
My father had a similar boldness. When my father quit organized crime to follow Jesus, one of his old bosses, St. Louis Andy, came calling on him. Andy showed up at my parents’ house in a big black car. All his bodyguards piled out of the car with guns in hand, to try to convince my father, by a show of force, that he needed to go with them. Not only did my father refuse, but he also used the opportunity to invite Andy to attend the Billy Graham meetings in Los Angeles where my father had recently committed his life to follow Christ. Andy said, “no thank you” to my father’s invitation and, amazingly, walked away without harming my father.
Paul had a similar kind of courage in speaking to King Agrippa about Jesus. And Agrippa said, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” It’s obvious—Paul longed for others to experience his Jesus.
The second part of Paul’s appeal was just as important. He said: I became like you. I think what Paul means here is that he identified with the Galatians. As he says in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22,
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
It is very hard, if not impossible, to win other people to Jesus unless we identify with them, unless we love them. Many years ago, I worked on an evangelistic campaign for Luis Palau in Southern California. I went around to countless churches, meeting with pastors, inviting them to get involved in the crusade. I remember one pastor I met with who was Southern Baptist. He was from the South, and we met in his dark little office, with no windows. My impression was that this man did not even like Californians. No wonder his church was so small! If we want to win people to Jesus, we must identify with them like Paul did. We must love them into the kingdom.
Paul’s appeal to the Galatians was based on a few important facts. First, Paul reminds the Galatians of the time when they did not know God. He says, “you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.” I think what Paul is talking about here is evil spirits.
The New Testament is quite clear that there are only two spiritual teams we can possibly play on. Either we are on God’s team, or we are on the Devil’s team. There is no in-between team.
I continue to be amazed at people who dabble in spiritualism. By this I mean people who want to connect with the spiritual realm. I understand the desire. I think every human being has a desire for the spiritual, however muddled. That’s not the part that surprises me. The part that surprises me is people who try to connect with the spiritual through mediums, through Ouija boards, and all the rest, who never think for a minute that they might connect with an evil spirit who might do them harm. But that is a distinct possibility we must consider. Paul says, “when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.”
So, that’s the first thing he tells the Galatians. He reminds them of their former spiritual state. But he does not leave them in that despair. Paul goes on to say, “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”
That’s a good question. Paul’s basic message can be summed up like this: “Once we were slaves. Now we are children of God. How can we go back to the old slavery?”
No doubt Paul has in mind the story of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness. That was such a tough experience at times that some of the Israelites yearned to go back to Egypt, even though that meant returning to slavery.
Some years ago, out west, animal rights activists managed to set a whale free from an aquarium near the ocean. I imagine the activists were surprised by what happened next. The whale swam a short distance, enjoyed the ocean for a little while, and then returned to familiar territory at the aquarium.
Paul tells the Galatians they are like this. They are returning to slavery. It’s a religious slavery but sometimes that can be the worst kind. Paul says, “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!”
- “Special days” refers to the Sabbath.
- The months are the new moons.
- The seasons are the great annual feasts like Passover and Pentecost.
- The years is a reference to the Sabbatical year, which happened every seven years.
William Barclay says that the problem with a religion that focuses on special occasions is that it tends to look at life in terms of sacred and secular. And the problem with that is that once you have done your sacred duty on a holy day, you think you are done. The rest of the time you can do as you please.
But the Old Testament as well as the New Testament speak against this approach to life. The Jews had no word in Hebrew for “religion”. They were taught to view all of life as coming from God and subject to his governance.
Jesus followed the same line of thinking. He did not say, “I have come that you may have religion.” No. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life in all of its fulness.” (John 10:10)
When we choose religion over a relationship with Christ, we are in trouble. As my friend Tim Hansel used to say,
…religion becomes a pattern of rules and regulations, a system that helps us tidy up our behavior, somewhat like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, it gives us a better view as we go down.[1]
It was Paul’s fear that the Galatians, who had once known the splendor of grace, would slip back into legalism. Paul was concerned that these followers of Jesus who had once lived in the presence of God would put God in a box and keep him sealed tight within certain holy days. Paul said, “I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” Do you hear the note of affectionate pleading in Paul’s words?
The Galatian’s Attitude Towards Paul
I have said many times before that reading the letters of Paul is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. It makes you wonder what was being said on the other end. Well, Paul gives us a glimpse of the Galatian attitude towards him in Galatians 4:13-16.
In verse 13 Paul says, “it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.” That is an intriguing statement. The book of Acts does not mention Paul having an illness at this point, so commentators have been forced to guess what Paul’s illness might have been.
Some people have guessed that Paul caught malaria in the mosquito-ridden swamps of coastal Pamphylia, along the southern coast of Asia Minor. This is also the place where John Mark left Paul and Barnabas. It makes one wonder, did Mark head for home because he was afraid of catching malaria too? We don’t know. But if Paul did contract malaria that may have provided the impetus for him to head north into the mountainous plateau of Galatia. Maybe he hoped that the cool mountain air would bring healing. It may be that when Paul arrived in Galatia, he was in the grip of a malarial fever. He says,
…even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself… I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
So, whatever Paul’s illness was, it apparently affected his eyesight as well. Malaria could have brought on blindness, albeit temporary. Acts 23:1-5 and Galatians 6:11 also suggest that Paul suffered from some sort of problem with his eyes.
The bottom line is this: at first, the Galatians had a good relationship with Paul. They received him like an angel, or as if he was Jesus himself. They cared for Paul in his illness. But something happened to change the Galatians’ attitude toward Paul. That is why he asks, “Where, then, is your blessing of me now? Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
What happened to change the Galatians’ attitude toward Paul? We find out what happened beginning in verse 17…
Paul’s Attitude Towards the Galatians
Paul says, “Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.” Who are “those people”? It is evident from the rest of the letter that “those people” are the Judaizers. They are Jewish Christians who tell the Gentile Christians in Galatia that they must be circumcised first if they are going to follow Jesus properly. In short, these Jewish Christians tell the Gentile Christians they must become full Jews first, to be proper Christians second.
Paul says that these Judaizers want to alienate the Gentile Christians from Paul and his companions. The Judaizers want these new converts to be zealous for them, not for Paul.
Paul’s response is: “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.” Zeal is kind of like sincerity. Sincerity is nice, but it is quite possible to be sincerely wrong. Just so, it is also possible to be zealously wrong, to be zealous about the wrong cause or the wrong things.
Contrast this with Paul’s attitude toward these Galatian Christians. He calls them “my dear children”. This is a tough letter. Paul has a lot of tough things to say here. Sometimes it seems like he is angry. But his anger is that of a loving parent who cares passionately for his children, in this case, his spiritual children. Paul compares himself to a mother. He says, “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” In other words, Paul is not content to simply see Christ in the Galatians, he wants to see Christ growing in them, like an embryo in a woman’s womb that eventually becomes a child capable of surviving outside the womb.
The difference in attitude between the false teachers and Paul could not be clearer. The false teachers wanted to dominate the Galatians. Paul longed to see Christ formed in the Galatians. The false teachers were focused on prestige and position. Paul was prepared to sacrifice himself for the Galatians.
Paul embodied the same attitude of servant leadership that Jesus embodied. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 10:45… “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And then Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross. Paul had the same attitude of being willing to sacrifice himself for others. It was not that he thought his sacrifice could redeem people from their sin as Jesus’ sacrifice did. But Paul was willing to lay his life down, and he did in fact lay his life down, that other people might know Jesus and the saving sacrifice of the cross.
Again, Paul out of the anguished heart of a loving parent, says, “How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!” Doesn’t that sound like the concern of a parent who sends their child off to college and then is concerned when they hear a bad report about their child’s behavior? Paul longs to be with the Galatians that he might lead them back to the right path in Christ.
I wonder: are you passionate like Paul to see others come to faith in Jesus Christ, to see Christ formed in people’s souls? That kind of passion is not just for apostles, not just for missionaries, not just for pastors. I believe the Lord wants you to have the same kind of passion Paul did.
You know, there really is no other purpose for what we are doing here in church. I agree wholeheartedly with C. S. Lewis who wrote in Mere Christianity…
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.[2]
We need to be passionate about seeing Christ formed in others. And if we are going to be passionate to see Christ formed in others, we must first see him formed in us. We cannot give to others what we have not experienced ourselves. But once you have begun to experience a relationship with Jesus, you can share that with others. You can become a reproducer for Christ.
You may wonder: what’s the first step? If we don’t have Christ in our hearts, the first step is to invite him in. If we want to see Christ formed in others, the first step is similar. We begin with prayer. As Charles Spurgeon once said…
The soul-winner must be the master of the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if you do not go to God yourself… If you are much alone with Jesus, you will catch His Spirit. You will be fired with the flame that burned in His breast and consumed His life. You will weep with the tears that fell upon Jerusalem when He saw it perishing; and if you cannot speak so eloquently as He did yet shall there be about what you say somewhat of the same power which in Him thrilled the hearts and awoke the consciences of men.
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