Galatians 4:10 - Homiletics

The observance of days.

The apostle now gives a specimen of this bondage. "Days ye are observing, and months, and seasons, and years." The days were the Jewish sabbaths, with other times of religious observance; the months were the new moons, always exactly observed; the seasons were annual festivals, as Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles; and the years were the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee.

I. THE GROUNDS OF THE APOSTLE 'S CONDEMNATION OF HOLY DAYS .

1 . Not that they were not of Divine appointment. God expressly appointed them all. The Judaists, after all, had more to say for themselves than the Roman Catholics for their fasts and festivals, which were not appointed by God.

2 . Not that Jewish converts were wrong in observing them ; for he himself observed some of them, and there was a liberty allowed in this transition period of the gospel. "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" ( Romans 14:5 ). Thus the Jewish converts were in the habit of "keeping the days unto the Lord."

3 . He condemns the Galatians , as Gentiles , for observing days which , as Jewish , had no relation to them , and most of which, as Jewish, applied only to the conditions of society in the Holy Land. The Galatians are accordingly condemned:

II. THE CONDEMNATION IN PRINCIPLE STILL ABIDES IN CHRISTIANITY ,

1 . It cannot apply to the observance of the Lord ' s day , because

2 . It cannot apply to the case of individuals voluntarily observing days of fasting and thanksgiving for their own spiritual edification , while they do not attempt to make them obligatory on others.

3 . It cannot apply to the right of the Church , by its own authority, to appoint such days of fasting or thanksgiving as public emergencies may suggest as necessary to the highest interests of man. This idea excludes the thought of any special holiness attaching to the day itself.

4 . But it does condemn the appointment by the Church of stated and permanent days which take their place, as a religious service, with all the regularity of the weekly sabbath itself. The apostle displaces all the Jewish days of observance without exception as belonging "to the rudiments of the world," and allows to the Gentiles no day of regularly appointed worship but the Christian sabbath. The tendency of holy days is, not to spiritualize the week, but rather to secularize the sabbath. This, at least, is manifest in Roman Catholic countries.