Galatians 4:3 Commentary

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Galatians 4:3

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The Greek word ‘elements’ means ‘any first things from which others in a series, or a composite whole, take their rise’ and comes from a word meaning ‘a row, rank, series’. It was used of letters of the alphabet as elements of speech (Vines). It is used in Colossians 2:8, 20 where it is translated ‘rudiments of the world’, and in Hebrews 5:12 where it is rendered ‘first principles of the oracles of God’. As applied to the law it must mean that which is basic, rudimentary. God gave the law and its ordinances and ceremonies, not with the intention that his people should think them to be the complete revelation of truth, but rather a stepping stone to understanding. They were not themselves the glory of God, but means of instruction designed for children to point them to greater realities to come. In themselves, they were weak and lacked any power to give life or to change the heart of man, and all their value lay in their power to teach. They were ordinances designed for an earthly people, although they had the ability under the Spirit’s instruction to lead the people to something much higher: to the glorious work of the coming Messiah which God promised through them. They concerned the approval or prohibition of physical entities restricted to life in this world, but God cannot truly be worshiped in this way, for as Christ said, those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Worship which is concerned with food and clothing and earthy representations of heavenly realities, the elements of the world, to some extent keeps men in bondage. The ceremonies and requirements of the law had two effects at the same time. To the unregenerate they were an end in themselves and were considered the sum of true worship; to these, they were an obstacle to knowing God, giving the impression that God was satisfied with a mere outward obedience. But to believers they were only a temporary form of instruction pointing to the glories to come, and which would be replaced by spiritual realities.

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Is Paul including Gentiles in this statement? At first sight it would appear not, for the context is the law given to Israel (Galatians 3:17). It is they who have passed through these great stages in the unfolding plan of God, and in Galatians 4:5 where Paul speaks of their deliverance from this bondage, he talks in terms of them being redeemed from under the law of Moses. However we must keep in mind that God made Israel an object lesson for the whole world. When Israel was explicitly placed under the law at Sinai, it was not the start of the law’s jurisdiction over them. Every individual Israelite, in common with every other member of the human race, was born under the law, and Sinai was merely a reminder of this. Israel represented two peoples at once. As the descendants of Abraham they were a typical people representing the church of God, for God chose to give them privileges not given to any other nation and blessed them with the temple worship and the priesthood. But at the same time they remained for the most part an unbelieving people and so represented the unbelieving world which, however great the privileges it receives from God, remains at enmity with him in its heart. Accordingly Israel under the covenant of Sinai represents every unbelieving human being born under the law of God. Therefore in spite of the glorious truths prefigured by the ceremonial law concerning the work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ, these ceremonies and rituals are rightly called the elements of the world. In themselves they have no power to save, for they cannot take away sin, cleanse the conscience, or provide justification. When Israel began to treat them as an end in themselves they turned even these God given elements of worship into idols. Paul is not just thinking of the state of Israel but of all who are without faith in Christ Jesus. This is clear from Galatians 4:8 in which he expounds the former servitude of the Galatians to their false gods as the practice of idolatry, and then in Galatians 4:9-10 warns them not to turn again to this servitude by observing elements of the Jewish ceremonial law (repeating the word ‘again’ twice).

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Galatians 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study