Because of the Grace Gospel, Paul was Regarded as an Enemy of Believers.
Is it possible that the no matter what religious persuasion we find
ourselves in, no mater if we have held unto the religion we were born
into or, feel through spiritual
enlightenment of added truth, given by the leaders of other religions
have accepted a different religion, that most of what we believe has
been handed down religious tradition that are religious minded
ideologies about the law that seduced us to embrace the keeping of the
law as the acid test, the measuring stick, that we are true believers in
Christ?
To be caught in such deception is what Paul refers to as bondage and spiritual slavery. The Galatian people were greatly offended by Paul's challenging of this mixing of law and grace by establishing a new covenant of grace that had nothing to do with mixing law with it. When Paul endeavored to correct this false teaching so that believers would no become enslaved by its deception and succumb to wrong doctrine and theology, he was ridiculed and despised for it so much so they started treating him as an enemy as the scripture records,
In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. But now you know the true God. Really, though, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to the same kind of weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? It worries me that you follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. I fear that my work for you has been wasted.
Brothers and sisters, I became like you. So please become like me. You were very good to me before. You know that I came to you the first time because I was sick. That was when I told the Good News to you. My sickness was a burden to you, but you did not stop showing me respect or make me leave. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God. You accepted me as if I were Jesus Christ himself! You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I can say without a doubt that you would have done anything to help me. If it had been possible, you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me. Am I now your enemy because I tell you the truth?
Those people are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and work hard for them. It is good for you to work hard, of course, if it is for something good. That’s something you should do whether I am there or not. My little children, I am in pain again over you, like a mother giving birth. I will feel this pain until people can look at you and see Christ. I wish I could be with you now. Then maybe I could change the way I am talking to you. Now I don’t know what to do about you.
Some of you people want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says? The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. So Hagar is like Mount Sinai in Arabia. She is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city is a slave, and all its people are slaves to the law. But the heavenly Jerusalem that is above is like the free woman, who is our mother. The Scriptures say,
“Be happy, woman—you who cannot have children. Be glad you never gave birth.Shout and cry with joy! You never felt those labor pains.The woman who is alone[d] will have more children than the woman who has a husband.”
My brothers and sisters, you are children who were born because of God’s promise, just as Isaac was. But the other son of Abraham, who was born in the normal way, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same today. But what do the Scriptures say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has, but the son of the slave woman will receive nothing.”[ So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman. We are children of the free woman. (Gal. 4: 8-31)
To be caught in such deception is what Paul refers to as bondage and spiritual slavery. The Galatian people were greatly offended by Paul's challenging of this mixing of law and grace by establishing a new covenant of grace that had nothing to do with mixing law with it. When Paul endeavored to correct this false teaching so that believers would no become enslaved by its deception and succumb to wrong doctrine and theology, he was ridiculed and despised for it so much so they started treating him as an enemy as the scripture records,
In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. But now you know the true God. Really, though, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to the same kind of weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? It worries me that you follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. I fear that my work for you has been wasted.
Brothers and sisters, I became like you. So please become like me. You were very good to me before. You know that I came to you the first time because I was sick. That was when I told the Good News to you. My sickness was a burden to you, but you did not stop showing me respect or make me leave. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God. You accepted me as if I were Jesus Christ himself! You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I can say without a doubt that you would have done anything to help me. If it had been possible, you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me. Am I now your enemy because I tell you the truth?
Those people are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and work hard for them. It is good for you to work hard, of course, if it is for something good. That’s something you should do whether I am there or not. My little children, I am in pain again over you, like a mother giving birth. I will feel this pain until people can look at you and see Christ. I wish I could be with you now. Then maybe I could change the way I am talking to you. Now I don’t know what to do about you.
Some of you people want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says? The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. So Hagar is like Mount Sinai in Arabia. She is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city is a slave, and all its people are slaves to the law. But the heavenly Jerusalem that is above is like the free woman, who is our mother. The Scriptures say,
“Be happy, woman—you who cannot have children. Be glad you never gave birth.Shout and cry with joy! You never felt those labor pains.The woman who is alone[d] will have more children than the woman who has a husband.”
My brothers and sisters, you are children who were born because of God’s promise, just as Isaac was. But the other son of Abraham, who was born in the normal way, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same today. But what do the Scriptures say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has, but the son of the slave woman will receive nothing.”[ So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman. We are children of the free woman. (Gal. 4: 8-31)
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