Ye observe days - Ye superstitiously regard the Sabbaths and particular days of your own appointment; And months - New moons; times - festivals, such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, etc. Years - Annual atonements, sabbatical years, and jubilees. read more
I am afraid of you - I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labor in your conversion have been thrown away. read more
Be as I am - Thoroughly addicted to the Christian faith and worship, from the deepest conviction of its truth. For I am as ye are - I was formerly a Jew, and as zealously addicted to the rites and ceremonies of Judaism as ye are, but I am saved from that mean and unprofitable dependence: "Be therefore as I am now; who was once as you now are." Others think the sense to be this: "Be as affectionate to me as I am to you; for ye were once as loving to me as I am now to you." Ye have not... read more
Verse 8 8.But when ye as yet knew not God. This is not intended as an additional argument; and indeed he had already proved his point so fully, that no doubt remained, and the rebuke which was now to be administered could not be evaded. His object is to make their fall appear more criminal, by comparing it with past events. It is not wonderful, he says, that formerly ye did service to them which by nature are no gods; for, wherever ignorance of God exists, there must be dreadful blindness. You... read more
Verse 9 9.But now, (67) after that ye have known God. No language can express the base ingratitude of departing from God, when he has once been known. What is it but to forsake, of our own accord, the light, the life, the fountain of all benefits, — “to forsake,” as Jeremiah complains, “the fountain of living waters, and hew out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!” (Jeremiah 2:13.) Still farther to heighten the blame, he corrects his language, and says, or rather have been,... read more
Verse 10 10.Ye observe days. He adduces as an instance one description of “elements,” the observance of days. No condemnation is here given to the observance of dates in the arrangements of civil society. The order of nature out of which this arises, is fixed and constant. How are months and years computed, but by the revolution of the sun and moon? What distinguishes summer from winter, or spring from harvest, but the appointment of God, — an appointment which was promised to continue to the... read more
Verse 11 11.Lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. The expression is harsh, and must have filled the Galatians with alarm; for what hope was left to them, if Paul’s labor had been in vain? Some have expressed astonishment that Paul should be so powerfully affected by the observance of days, as almost to designate it a subversion of the whole gospel. But if we carefully weigh the whole, we shall see that there was just reason; and that the false apostles not only attempted to lay the yoke... read more
Verse 12 12.Be as I am. Having till now spoken roughly, he begins to adopt a milder strain. The former harshness had been more than justified by the heinousness of the offense; but as he wished to do good, he resolves to adopt a style of conciliation. It is the part of a wise pastor to consider, not what those who have wandered may justly deserve, but what may be the likeliest method of bringing them back to the right path. He must “be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort,... read more
Majority and minority. I. THE CHILD COMING TO HIS MAJORITY . Analogy. "But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bond-servant, though he is lord of all; but is under guardians and stewards until the term appointed of the father." At the close of the preceding chapter Christians were described as Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise. It is with regard to this that the apostle now makes use of an analogy. It is a very simple and... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Galatians 4:9
Now, after that ye have known God - After having been brought to the knowledge of God as your Savior. Or rather are known of God - Are approved of him, having received the adoption of sons. To the weak and beggarly elements - After receiving all this, will ye turn again to the ineffectual rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law - rites too weak to counteract your sinful habits, and too poor to purchase pardon and eternal life for you? If the Galatians were turning again to them, it is... read more