October 27, 2025 - Galatians 4-6

The legalists have come into Galatia, and they have steered the believers away from the true gospel.  Paul, on the other hand, always has had the Galatians’ well-being as a priority.  He has suffered on their behalf.  He has preached the gospel to them.  He has prayed for them.  And he has told them the truth, though they now seem not to want to hear it:  “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (4:16).  An age old problem, huh?  Sometimes we interpret the truth telling of friends or parents or other believers as meanness or a lack of love.  Here, just the opposite, though.

Paul is struggling mightily with these Galatians:  “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you . . . I am perplexed about you” (4:19,20).  But he will persevere with them.  Why?  Because he loves them!  And so, he reminds them about Hagar and Sarah, that is, that Sarah was the one who bore the son of promise, and now we are the recipients of the promise, and we are free.   The Galatians are to live lives in the Spirit, living in a way that is honoring to the God who saved them by grace and that benefits one another.  The Galatians (and we) are a “new creation” (6:15).  Not what we once were and not yet what we will be, we are new and different because we are in Jesus Christ.

Come, Almighty to deliver;

Let us all thy grace receive;

Suddenly return, and never,

Never more thy temples leave.

Thee we would be always blessing,

Serve thee as thy host above,

Pray, and praise thee without ceasing,

Glory in thy perfect love.

Finish, then, thy new creation;

Pure and spotless let us be;

Let us see thy great salvation

Perfectly restored in thee;

Changed from glory into glory

Till in Heav’n we take our place,

Till we cast our crowns before thee,

Lost in wonder, love, and praise!   -- Charles Wesley (1747)