“And you didn’t even realize it”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, January 30, 2023
Galatians 4:1-11 (Forward, p. 93) CEV p. 1218
Do you think that Paul’s audience realized that they had previously been slaves, or that they were in danger of falling back into slavery? I suspect not, for the answer is still the same. They had been slaves unconsciously to unseen spiritual powers that ruled their lives through a strict and unrelenting adherence to rules and regulations associated with the Law of Moses. Contemporary Judaism had taught them that salvation was entirely based on merit, on performance, on living up fully to the standards that God had set. And so, it became a kind of performance slavery, a soulless pursuit of excellence that could never be achieved. They had become slaves or victims of that ingrained mentality. And, likewise, Paul believed, if they once again slavishly adhered to observing all the ‘proper’ days and times, they would fall back into a similar mindset and similar slavery. They would have lost the freedom that Christ affords, and the simple sense of belonging and being God’s children simply because they belong to Christ—and not because of anything that they did.
I don’t think that this issue of slavery is at all irrelevant to people today. There are people who are slaves to their paycheque, being only one paycheque away from debt or insolvency. There are people who are slaves to certain unhealthy relationships, continuing on in those relationships only because of their own fear. There are people who are slaves to their pasts, afraid that they will be found out. And, there are myriads of people who are slaves, victims, of some ancestral heritage or hereditary or cultural thing, and thus unable to be free and move on with their lives.
One other thing: Jews and Gentiles alike in New Testament times believed that there were elemental forces, spiritual forces apart from God and the Holy Spirit, that were at work in the world. It was thought that they constituted some sort of cosmic conspiracy set to work against the collective good of humankind and the personal good of various individuals.
Indeed, so prevalent was this idea, that they gave names or attributes to these elemental forces, deception, strife, fate, distress, error, power. And so, people lived in fear of these agencies or forces—and were basically slaves to their fears. The apostle Paul doesn’t poh poh this notion; indeed, he goes along with it and says that there are indeed such forces or
agencies at work in our world. He maintains that there is indeed a conspiracy of sorts but seeing as we are in Christ Jesus and set free by Him, we no longer have to be slaves to these notions, live in fear of them or be intimidated by them. We are set free to be the people that God intended us to be. Amen.
Forward notes: “Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?” (verse 9a)
“It can be hard to let others get to know us. Sometimes, people we’ve grown up with or who have known us for years get an idea stuck in their heads about who we are or what we are like. When we get new interests, or discover new things about ourselves, or just change and grow, it can surprise them. Other times, people we don’t know at all might see the outside markers and decide they know us because they have an idea of who we must be based on our age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ability, or socioeconomic class.
“God knows us fully. And we can’t surprise God! God delights when we grow and change into more of who we have been created to be. In the fullness of time, God delights in getting to know us. May we spend our lives delighting in getting to know God.”
MOVING FORWARD: “How can you invite others to see the true you? How can you look past your own preconceived notions and truly see others?”