My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.
And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God—-as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me—-that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.
Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.
It’s a good thing to be passionate in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can’t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.
Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human plotting; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—-a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—-this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:
Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,
Shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,
Because the children of the barren woman
Now surpass the children of the chosen woman.
Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless plotting (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—-empowered by the Spirit—-from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Galatians 4:12-31
That Five-Letter Word
Sisters, if ever there was a five-letter word, it would be “trust.” We hear it so often; it lined the path, our slow descent downhill. “Trust me,” we heard time and time again. “This is good. Would I lead you astray?” And we trusted. Time and time and time again, we trusted. Time and time and time again, we were let down. Deception—-our hearts broken, and our wills crushed. We hung our heads and drug our hands along the ground. We gave up hope and sullenly made our way down the easy path. With a sigh, “It’s just easier this way.” Five-letter word indeed. We vowed we would never trust again.
Paul dealt with that word too. In Galatia, folks snuck in and offered temptation straight back into a life of slavery. He says, “They are flattering you, but they have no interest in leading you into deeper freedom; they are only interested in what they can get from you. And when they are gone, you will never hear from them again. They want to use you. If you permit this, you are back into the same old life again, the life of slavery. Don’t listen to them! I know that their words are appealing. I know that what they say is plausible. But their motives are foul. They do not want you complete and whole. They want you to play the part that lines their pockets, feeds their egos, and promotes their causes.” Jewish interpolators.
Freedom comes from trust, not from completing a checklist.
We see it in our own lives. We are walking along, enjoying our relationship with our Father, and someone (usually someone prominent) sidles up and says, “Hey, wanna be closer to God? Wanna go deeper?” And, of course, we do. We crave that intimacy with Him; we were created for that very thing. So we say, “Yes, please!” And next thing ya know, we have a to-do list of all we should do to get closer. Little rituals and tiny checklists we should keep at hand. If we do these things, then we always know where we stand with God. Naturally, we want to know. At this point, God ceases to be our father. This kind of religion puts us squarely in the driver’s seat. Keeping up with our little checklist means we no longer have to walk by faith. We no longer have to live in love. Removing all ambiguity on where we stand with God gives us a false sense of freedom. The mysteries of faith and the vulnerabilities of love slip into the background. Oh, the sneaky downhill path.
Freedom comes from trust, not from completing a checklist. It does not come from controlling things, messes, or people. Paul reminds us of the story of Ishmael and Isaac. Freedom comes when we trust God to be in control. Loss of freedom results from attempting to take that control ourselves. God promised Abraham. All Abraham had to hang onto was that promise. So what did he do? Abraham took; he didn’t wait for the freedom of receiving. He helped himself. The history lesson is pretty straightforward: the moment we begin manipulating lives to gain control of our circumstances, we become enslaved in our plans. We have to live with grievous, unintended consequences.
Freedom comes when we trust God to be in control. Loss of freedom results from attempting to take that control ourselves
Sisters, freedom is a life of receiving, believing, accepting, and hoping. Because God freely keeps His promises, we are free to trust.