Do you desire to be in bondage? - October 25th, 2011

⁸ But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

Galatians 4:8-9

History and Context:

Galatia was a very large province covering the majority of modern day Turkey. Paul is recorded as having founded churches in the Galtian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe on his first missionary journey in Acts 13 and 14. Lystra is also the hometown of Timothy one of Paul's disciples. The letter to the Galatians was probably written around AD 49, the same year in which the committee met in Jerusalem to resolve the issue of whether Gentiles had to obey the Jewish law to be saved. This is the topic of the letter. Paul had taught strongly that salvation is only through grace by faith, but other Jewish leaders had come in and begun teaching that the Gentiles had to be circumcised and begin following the Jewish customs and rituals in order to be saved. Galatians teaches strongly the freedom of believers and the free gift of salvation to all who believe.

The Text:

In this passage Paul refers to the reader's life before knowing God, he says that at that time they served false gods and were in bondage to them. But now that they have known God, now that they have become Christians, now that they have recieved the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and the freedom that comes with it, they want to turn back to what they did before. Paul is amazed at this response because he can not understand how someone who has known the power and freedom that comes with knowing the one, true God, could ever want to turn back to the bondage which they were once in and had been freed from.

The Challenge:

So many of us find ourselves in the same place as the Galatians. We have been freed and "it was for freedom that Christ set us free"! But we have chosen to go back to that very lifestyle which we were freed from. It's time for us to embrace the freedom that God has given us. It's time for us to let go of those things which are trying to bind us and step into the life of freedom with Christ. For you it might be a sin, or it might be a form of religous rules and rituals. Either way it is something that the blood of Christ has set you free from and you do not have to be bound by it anymore!

The Prayer:

Lord, I love you and I want to walk in the freedom that you have provided for me. Help me to let go of these weak things that I have held onto for so long. Help me to step out of this bondage and into freedom. I choose life and freedom with you! In Jesus' name, Amen!