Galatians 4 Study Notes

4:16 Paul was saddened that the Galatians now viewed him as an enemy simply because he told them what they needed to hear (the truth), rather than what they wanted to hear.

4:17-18 Zeal can be deluded (see note at 1:13-14), as it was with the false teachers in Galatia. The only way these teachers could maintain the zeal of the Galatian churches was to exclude them from the other Gentile churches who were not trying to be justified by the “works of the law” (2:16).

4:19 Paul wished the Galatians could be “born again” (see Jn 3:3,5-8) a second time, which was not possible (Heb 6:4-6). Emotionally, he felt like a woman in labor giving birth to the same baby for the second time (i.e., in trying to bring the Galatians back around to justification by faith, thus ditching the misguided emphasis on works of the law).

4:20 Paul did not enjoy being stern with those whom he cared about, but he didn’t know what else to do about their situation since he could not be with them physically.

4:21 The law does not refer specifically to the law of Moses, but to the Books of the Law—the Pentateuch (i.e., Genesis-Deuteronomy). Paul’s logic was that even the law itself would dispute the view of the false teachers.

4:22-23 Genesis records the births of these two sons—Ishmael, born to Hagar, a slave, and Isaac, born to Sarah, a free woman. Ishmael was born as a result of the flesh, because Sarah and Abraham used Hagar to have a son by their own ingenuity, not through patient trust in God’s promise (Gn 16). Isaac was born as God promised (Gn 15:4; 17:16-17; 21:1-3) after many years of waiting by Abraham and Sarah.

4:24-26 Paul declared that he was using these things . . . figuratively in an elaborate allegory. On one side of the comparison of covenants is (a) Mount Sinai, where the law of Moses was given, (b) Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and (c) the present Jerusalem, from which the false teachers had come to Syrian Antioch (2:11-13) and Galatia. This side of the comparison represents spiritual slavery through the law. On the other side of the comparison is the Jerusalem above, a Jewish hope that will be fully realized only in the new heavens and new earth (Rv 21:2,9-22:5). Interestingly, Sarah is not referred to as the mother at this point, but “the Jerusalem above” is.

4:27 The quote from Is 54:1 in this verse deals with the fact that the children born after the exile were more fortunate and greater in number than those righteously judged for breaking the law. The implication is that those who still rely on the law are being replaced by the church and its law-free gospel.

4:28-30 Paul assumed that those in the Galatian churches would return to his view and show themselves to be children of promise (i.e., Abraham’s seed through faith in Christ; 3:29). But, as Ishmael persecuted Isaac in Gn 21:9-10, it is to be expected that the Judaizers will persecute true Christians. Paul was confident that eventually his opponents would be exiled from among God’s people, while his own view would receive the inheritance.

4:31 Paul placed himself and the Galatians on the side of Isaac and his descendants, the Jews, while his opponents are children of a slave, making them non-Jews.