Galatians: Chapter 4:1-20

Summary

Catholic Bible Study: Galatians Chapter 4:1-20

Augustine Institute — March 17, 2026
Hosts: Dr. Michael Barber (A) and Dr. Jim Prothro (B)

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Episode Overview

This episode continues the in-depth Catholic Bible Study on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, focusing specifically on chapter 4, verses 1-20. Dr. Michael Barber and Dr. Jim Prothro examine Paul’s teaching about spiritual inheritance, the transition from law to sonship in Christ, the role of the Trinity in redemption, and Paul’s anguished love for the Galatian Christians. The hosts explore key theological themes: redemption through Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit, adoption into God’s family, and the dangers of reverting to old practices. Their tone is conversational, academic, and pastoral, balancing scriptural insight with relatable analogies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Inheritance and Spiritual Maturity

[00:00-04:17]

• Paul builds upon the analogy from chapter 3—the child heir under guardians and managers (law) who ultimately receives the inheritance (promise through Christ).
• The term “elementary principles” (Greek stoicheia) is discussed, referencing both worldly powers and possibly spiritual beings like angels or elemental spirits.
• The Law, given through angels, was a necessary intermediary, distancing the children (Israel) from direct contact with God, but Jesus changes that dynamic.
• Quote:
  • “What God has done in Christ is something that is in continuity with his plan of salvation, but it also transcends in ways what was available in the old covenant. And so you don't want to go backwards, you want to go forwards.” — A [04:22]

2. The Fullness of Time and Redemption

[05:58-09:36]

• Paul stresses Christ is born “under the law” to redeem those under the law—redemption means transfer from one domain (law, old covenant) to another (spirit, new covenant).
• The purpose of redemption: to receive adoption as sons/daughters, sharing Christ’s own sonship.
• The sending of the Spirit fulfills prophetic promises (e.g., Ezekiel)—softening hearts and allowing us to cry “Abba! Father!”
• Quote:
  • “We’re not sons and daughters of God apart from Christ. We, in a sense, share... Christ’s sonship with the Father, we share in his relationship with the Father.” — A [07:39]

3. The Trinitarian Work in Salvation

[09:36-11:47]

• Dr. Prothro emphasizes the unity of the Trinity in redemption:
  • The Father sends the Son,
  • The Son redeems,
  • The Spirit sanctifies and enables us to call God “Father.”
• The language of “daring” to call God Father (from the liturgy)—the Spirit empowers our bold approach to God.
• Quote:
  • “Because [the Spirit’s] in you, you can call God Father without hedging your bets... we ‘dare to say’ [the Lord’s Prayer] because that's a bold thing to say for a little pipsqueak like me to look at God and go, dad, Father.” — B [10:55]

4. Turning Back to Old Practices

[11:47-16:57]

• Paul warns against returning to “weak and worthless elemental principles”—whether demonic or merely outdated religious observances.
• Observing Jewish practices (days, months, seasons) is seen as moving backward, not forward, in God’s plan.
• The importance of God’s initiative: it is God who knows us first, and that encounter should provoke a response—not passivity.
• Quote:
  • “Now that you’ve come to know God, or rather to be known by God... how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?” — A quoting Paul [12:00]
• Prothro highlights Philippians 3:12: striving to make God’s gift our own, not as an unattainable carrot, but as a reality already given.

5. Paul’s Appeal: Spiritual Fatherhood and the Power of Relationship

[16:57-24:42]

• Paul’s personal approach—he became vulnerable, like the Galatians, and they once received him as though he were an “angel” or even “Christ Jesus.”
• The faith community should receive ministers and fellow Christians as they would Christ, for the Spirit dwells in each baptized believer.
• Paul uses powerful, maternal imagery—anguish “as in childbirth” for the Galatians, hoping “Christ is formed in you."
• Quotes:
  • "You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Really a beautiful passage." — A [18:50]
  • "Paul talks about himself... as like a nursing mother... all of us are like midwives under God. Right. Or like mothers." — B [24:34]

6. The Dangers of False Teachers and Sectarianism

[19:10-23:46]

• False teachers are persuading Galatian Christians to return to Jewish observances and circumcision, effectively excluding them from full fellowship.
• These teachers, though Christians from Jewish background, demand Gentile Christians adopt Jewish practices.
• Paul warns this will shut the Galatians out from the community and cause them to glorify the false teachers instead of Christ.
• Quotes:
  • “They're trying to break you off from us.” — B [22:28]
  • “It's not good enough for you to be a Gentile. You need to become a Jew so that you can then be a Christian.” — A [23:40]

7. Pastoral Severity and Love

[26:16-29:40]

• Paul’s stern tone is motivated by love—just as a parent sternly warns a child in danger, Paul uses urgent language because spiritual life and death are at stake.
• Personal anecdotes are offered, likening Paul’s rebuke to a mechanic saving a child from traffic by shouting—a loving, even if harsh, necessity.
• Quote:
  • “Paul doesn’t have a problem... yelling out, don’t do this. Because if they do this, they will cut themselves off from the life of Christ and death is the circumstance that they are going to face, real death.” — A [29:40]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the transition from law to sonship:
  “What God has done in Christ... transcends in ways what was available in the old covenant. You don’t want to go backwards, you want to go forwards.” — A [04:22]
• On calling God “Dad”:
  "...that's a bold thing to say for a little pipsqueak like me to look at God and go, dad, Father. But Jesus invites us to do that because he sends us His Holy Spirit.” — B [10:55]
• On Paul’s maternal imagery:
  “If bringing somebody to Christ is like giving them new birth, all of us are like midwives under God. Or like mothers.” — B [24:42]
• On pastoral severity:
  “If he was with them, he could change his tone because he could teach them through it... he’s got no problem yelling out, don’t do this. Because if they do this, they will cut themselves off from the life of Christ and death is the circumstance that they are going to face, real death.” — B and A [29:11, 29:40]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Inheritance and the Law: [00:00–04:17]
• Redemption and Adoption in Christ: [05:58–09:36]
• Role of the Trinity in Salvation: [09:36–11:47]
• Turning Back to Old Practices: [11:47–16:57]
• Paul’s Unique Pastoral Relationship: [16:57–24:42]
• Sectarianism and False Teachers: [19:10–23:46]
• Maternal Imagery and Pastoral Severity: [24:34–29:40]

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Final Reflections

The hosts stress that Christian life is participation in God’s own family through Christ and the Spirit—a reality that surpasses the old covenant and cannot be achieved by works or heritage alone. Paul’s deep, even anguished love for the Galatian believers compels his strong warning: the stakes are eternal life or death. The discussion challenges listeners to treasure the gift of adoption, continually receive the Spirit, and remain faithful, resisting the pull to self-justify or seek spiritual security in anything other than Christ.

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Transcript

[A]

Hello, I'm Michael Barber, and this is my dear friend Jim Prothro, and we're both professors here at the Augustine Institute. And you're joining us for a Bible study on Galatians that shouldn't be a surprise to you. That should be a big title above the video or something before you click on it. So hopefully I'm not sharing anything new or giving you a spoiler, but what we're going to do now is continue our trek through this amazing letter of St. Paul. And we're going to pick up in chapter four. All right, and here in chapter four, Paul. Paul builds on what he'd been talking about in the previous chapter, where he identified the way through Christ we become heirs of the promises made to Abraham. And he says, I mean, that the heir, as long as he is a child is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. And we talked about this how Peter, people in the ancient world would have servants, a pedagogue, and then the children would be under that servant for some period of time. And while the children are young, they don't have all the rights of, of the owner of the estate, right? They, they are under these other servants. They have to obey. And so that's what Paul's talking about here. He says, in the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to. Now there's a issue with how to translate this expression here, but the ESV has a perfectly fine rendering. The elementary principles, it says of the world. So we were confined to the, to the basic elements of this world. Now, in Greek, the word stoichia can also have the connotation of, of spirits or powers. And some people see here the idea that you, you're under angels. And elsewhere in Paul's letters, we read about how in the new covenant, the righteous, the saints will judge the angels and are even over the angels. But I don't know, we don't really want to spend too much time getting into the weeds of this passage here.

[B]

But no, but only this is something that you point out in your book, which is really helpful, I think. So if you're reading the ESVCE in this verse, you'll see, right, elementary principles of the world. And then there's a little footnote at the bottom that says, or maybe elemental spirits. Sometimes, like you said, people thought pagans thought about these as like stars, right? They controlled fates. And other people could talk about angels this way. And in terms of what Paul is kind of getting at here, right? We're thinking about. Right. He's talking about being a child and then growing up, right. To receive the full inheritance of your parents. We'll talk more about that in a. But remember what he said in Galatians 3:19, right? He said the law was given through angels. That doesn't mean that it's not from God, but it means that if we're thinking about being a child kind of under the world as it is, what Paul calls the present evil age in chapter 1, verse 4 of Galatians, and God bringing us into contact not just with mediators like Moses or an angel or somebody else, somebody who comes from God, because we can't handle being in close contact with God, but actually being put into contact with God himself. Well, that's something new that happens in Jesus because God and God's whole Godness, right? As Colossians is the fullness of divinity, right? All of God's Godness is in Jesus in bodily form, walking around, and then is given by the Holy Spirit to us. And that means that there's something different. Just like he said earlier in chapter three, that we were under, right? He says Israel was under this pedagogue, this guardian of the law, until Christ should come. And they can be sons of God. Well, here we're under nannies and guardians and these elemental spirits, even like angels, but kept and sort of held there by them.

[A]

But they.

[B]

Now that Christ has come, we get to actually participate directly in God.

[A]

Right? And the other side of this is that for those Galatians who are insisting that they have to go back and keep all of the law and keep all of these observances in order to be justified, what Paul's saying is, no, you're kind of going backwards, right? I mean, what God has done in Christ is something that is in continuity with his plan of salvation, but it also transcends in ways what was available in the old covenant. And so you don't want to go backwards, you want to go forwards. Yes.

[B]

Yeah, it's a little bit like only a little bit like in Exodus, chapter 20, when God gives the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai and there's this sort of divine voice. I mean, it's an angel, but this sort of divine voice coming from the mountain that tells the Ten Commandments. And then all of the people of Israel look at Moses and say, hey, don't let him talk to us anymore, right? They've heard the voice of God, for goodness sake. But they're like that's scary. I don't want that. Moses, you do the talking from now on. Right? Now God wants that. God says, yes, this was a test. Moses says, God's testing you. Right. This is good. You fear him, but with Christ, it's like God is like, no, I have come to you to draw you into my own heavenly life. And you're going, no, I don't want to come in the big house. I'd rather sit out front on the porch. It's more comfortable for me.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I'd rather be out there with the law and everything else, but not come in here. Yeah, mosquitoes. But not come in.

[A]

Right, right. So Paul goes on, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law. So Christ is born under the law. Very significant. The law is not so wick that Christ doesn't come born under the law, but he comes to redeem those who were under the law so that they might receive. So that we might receive adoption as sons. What's Paul driving at there? Why, why is it important to be redeemed from under the law?

[B]

So redeem you. Can you. We like, we redeem coupons and things like that, Right. It's kind of like ransom. Right. But the main. Sometimes people get really bothered, like, well, wait, who did God pay? Did God pay death? Did he pay the devil? Did he pay the law some money to get? What are we talking about? That's not actually the biggest point.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But you transfer from one domain of authority and power to another one. God had put everybody, put Israel under the law on purpose, right. As a guardian. But. But now to redeem them from being under the law or under these things, he comes and in Christ gets them through the death and resurrection of Jesus, brings them fully and perfectly into his direct domain so that they're dealing not simply with Moses, but with God speaking not just with Moses or an angel or somebody else, but with God eating the bread, not just of human bread that miraculously fell, but the bread of angels itself, the bread of God.

[A]

Right. And so that they can receive adoption as sons. And so redemption is ultimately ordered towards being part of God's family and being brought in to union with the Son. And it's really important for Paul, I think we often overlook this. We're not sons and daughters of God apart from Christ. We, in a sense share for Paul, we Christ's sonship with the Father, we share in his relationship with the Father. And all of this, Paul says, happens because of the Spirit. God has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, abba, Father. And here we have imagery that's taken from prophets like Ezekiel, where God promises that in the future age when God redeems, when he restores his people, he will send his Spirit and he will give his people a heart of flesh. He will take out the heart of stone and give his people a heart of flesh. So here we have that idea of the Spirit being sent into our hearts so that we can be transformed. And that transformation is nothing less than becoming like Christ, becoming like the Son crying out, abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. And so if you are a son of God, Paul is explaining to the Galatians, you are an heir, and you are heir of the promises that were made to Abraham. You are no longer outside the family of Abraham. In Christ, you're united to the one who is the descendant of Abraham par excellence. And you are given his Spirit, Christ's Spirit, so that you can become like Him. Any thoughts on that before we move on?

[B]

No. Just one note here you can see the beautiful sort of trinitarian work of God to redeem us. One of the lines I like from Thomas Aquinas is that on the one hand, we can think about the different persons in the Trinity having characteristic actions. Right? The Spirit sanctifies, the Son redeems, the Father creates that kind of a thing. Right. And that's not a bad thing. Right. You can talk about God. Excuse me, you can talk about God, the Trinity as right, like creator and redeemer and sanctifier. But Thomas insists, and he's totally right, Right. That Thomas Aquinas. Yeah. That all of the Trinity is always involved. Right. And this is one of the reasons I got a question from a student the other day. They read in the Book of Acts, and then they read some of Paul and they said, I thought that we weren't supposed to say that the Father raised. That God raised Jesus from the dead. I thought we were just supposed to say Jesus rose because he has the power himself. I'm like, well, he does have the power himself, but he has the power because he's God, which means that God the Father is doing it too. And so is the Spirit and so is Jesus. And you can actually find all of those things being said differently in the Scriptures and here also in our redemption. Right. The Father sends the Son, the Son redeems by dying and rising again. But then in his sending out of the Holy Spirit is When that sonship, right, that adoption actually comes to reside in our hearts, right? Where the Spirit of God takes up its dwelling in us. And he says father to the Father. And he can do that without hedging his bets, without anything else. And that means that because he's in you, you. You can call God Father without hedging your bets, right? This is why we say in the liturgy, we dare to say right before we say our Father, because that's a bold thing to say for a little pipsqueak like me to look at God and go, dad, Father. But Jesus invites us to do that because he sends us His Holy Spirit so that we can call out Abba Father to him, right?

[A]

And we can't do that apart from the Spirit. And so we need to ask the Father to continually send that spirit to us and to unite ourselves to that Spirit. Paul goes on to say, formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. Here he's talking about the forces of demonic powers, writing those who are false gods, right? So before you did, before you knew God in Christ, before the gift of grace, you were enslaved, right? And so this is the reality of life apart from Christ, that we do not have freedom. We're not able to do the things that we're called to do because we lack the gift of that Spirit that enables us, that empowers us to be faithful. But now that you have come to know God, or rather, I like how he puts this, but now that you've come to know God, or rather to be known by God, because, I mean, let's be honest, we don't. We don't really know God fully, right? In reality, God is the one who makes himself known to us. How can you turn back, Paul is saying to the Galatians who want to be circumcised? How can you, the Galatian Gentiles, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. So the idea is, it seems that there's some pressure to adopt practices not just like circumcision, but maybe even to observe certain, you know, Jewish festivals, or at least any festival. The idea is it's not enough to have faith in Christ, that in order to receive the grace of Christ, some people are being told, no, you have to make yourself worthy in advance by doing all of these things. Paul's saying, no, you're going. Going backwards, right? It says, I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain. And so here we can just maybe come up with a quick little Venn diagram, right? Where on the one hand, there we see basically there are two spheres of existing. One sphere is under the law that's ordained by angels. And in that sphere you're under the elemental spirits, the elemental principles, the. You're the powers of this world. But then there's a new covenant age that's coming. There's the age that is marked by faith in Christ and that realm of existence, if you will, that. That way of being actually elsewhere. Paul says, you'll judge the angels. And he says, we're no longer under the law, and what happens is in Christ, if we're united to Christ. There's kind of an overlapping of these two periods. And that's really what Paul's talking about here, isn't he? Yeah.

[B]

If I could add too, to your comments about God taking the initiative for us by his grace. This little kind of correction that Paul has in verse nine, I think is really beautiful, and I just want to note it real quick. He says, now that you've come to know God, or rather you've been known by God, what's the first thing that happens? A lot of times we can go into the sort of struggle of thinking, okay, I gotta earn my place before God. Sometimes also we can go into the sort of like, next struggle of saying, oh, well, I thought I had to, but now I know I don't. And so, right. It's not about me knowing God, it's about God knowing me. So who cares if I ever study or ever try to keep his commandments or anything like that? One of the beautiful things, when God makes His. When God takes the initiative to know us and give us his grace, that creates this new relationship where we're transformed and we want to follow and know Him. So here God knows us, so you ought to know him, right? You ought to want to know him because he has come and brought us into this relationship of sonship and daughtership to him. Philippians 3. There's another thing that's just like this, and I want to share this with you even though it's not on the screen. Philippians 3:12. If you're watching, you can pause and flip to your Bible if you want, or you can just trust me. Paul says, right, I want to attain the goal of perfection and to be raised from the dead. He says, not that I've already obtained this or already am perfect, but I press on to make it My own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Because Jesus has come and made me unworthy his own. Now I want to make his gifts my own and live to strive and live into them.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It's not a striving for something that is beyond us and being dangled like a carrot. Right. It's striving to make real the gift that he's already put in us. Right. And that the Holy Spirit already is within us. And these guys want to run the opposite way.

[A]

Right? Right. All right. So then Paul goes On in verse 12, brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, bald. No, that's not. I don't think that's right. Brothers, I entreat you. Yeah. There are lots of interesting portrayals of Paul, depictions of Paul. There is a famous passage in a non biblical but ancient Christian work that gives us a description of Paul himself. We can find that in our book Paul A New Covenant Jew Book I wrote with Br And John Kincaid. The basic idea seems to be that Paul wasn't all that especially attractive to look at, but what made him great was his speaking and was his virtue. So he wasn't great in the eyes of the world. Right. So to speak, Anyway. For I also have become as you are. And here we really see Paul modeling what he believes Christ has done, right? That Christ has become as we are. And so Paul, you see that in Philippians as well, Philippians 2. Brothers, I entreated to become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. So Paul's talking about how he gave himself here, so to speak, to the Galatians, how he tried to become like them, became one of them, says, you know, it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. So it doesn't seem like Paul ended up in Galatia initially because he had this, you know, this careful plan. But he. He came there somehow because of some bodily ailment. He preached the gospel at first. And though my condition was a trial to you, so what this was, we're not really clear. Right. It could be an eye malady, it could be something else. And his condition, he had a physical condition that was a trial to them. You did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God. The Greek word there for angel is the word for messenger. So you receive me as the messenger of God, as Christ Jesus. Really a beautiful passage. Right. Any thoughts here you want to. Before we move to the next few

[B]

verses here, only to say, you find this language, a lot of you find it in Paul's letters, particularly of receiving other people as though they were Christ. Paul wants churches to receive apostles and other ministers and helpers, deacons, as though that person is Christ, because they represent Christ, even other persons.

[A]

He who hears, here's me, Jesus.

[B]

Exactly right. He wants people, when they receive or meet another Christian coming to them in the name of God, to treat them like they would treat Jesus. And there's something beautiful to that, not only when we're being visited by somebody, but also when we're visiting somebody else and we see somebody, right? To treat them as though we were going to go and visit the Lord. Because if the Holy Spirit is in all of us through our baptism, than the Lord is in each of us.

[A]

That's right, that's right.

[B]

But in the context here, it's not all that beautiful because he's going to say it was great what happened.

[A]

Right. So they originally recognized that Paul was preaching the true Gospel and they received him as Christ Jesus, even though he was wounded, even though he was vulnerable, even though he had an ailment. But these other representatives, these other teachers have come to these churches in Galatia. They presented themselves as the be all, end all. And Paul is upset because they've been, the Galatians have been listening to these other preachers and been led astray. This is so mind boggling for Paul. He goes on to say, what then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Right. The Galatians were so grateful, Paul, for him bringing the gospel, bringing the Spirit to them which they received. Paul says, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. What do you think Paul means by that there?

[B]

Well, this whole section here is a good reminder that if we read Galatians to be open only about what we think and about doctrine, then we're missing something. Paul says, I came to you, you received me as an angel of God, and now you've got these other people who showed up and you're going to leave the truth through my apostleship through the church, to jump in with other people. Right. It's not just an issue of you got the wrong teaching a little bit, but also right. That people are going to leave the apostolic church for these other yahoos.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Right. For something else and who are in

[A]

Some ways flattering them, saying they make

[B]

much of you and they want you to make much of them.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

And they're going to shut you out. Shut you out from what, Paul? Well, from the communion of the church. You're going to leave the message that Peter and all the other apostles and I preach, and you're going to actually break off communion with me, your apostle, and run off after these jokers. And they'd love that because then you'd be like, oh, you guys, you guys are the true church. You guys are the real apostles of Jesus. That's not actually going to be good for you. They're trying to break you off from us.

[A]

Do you think that in some sense what's going on here is that these false teachers are also sort of making much out of their Jewish background? Right. They're circumcised. You have to become like us. Right. And so in some ways there's a subtext here that these people are trying to shut you out from the church because they want you to make much of them as Jews, because they want you to have to become Jews by being circumcised. So do you think there might be. Maybe, Maybe not. That's. That's how I kind of detect that in the.

[B]

Yeah, maybe. No, I. I can see that.

[A]

Definitely.

[B]

Though it's worth remembering that when we talk about Jews in this context, right, we're not talking about non Christian Jews.

[A]

Right? That's right.

[B]

The people who are preaching to the Galatians are Christians, but they just are from Jewish descent and they're trying to foist all of the things from their own.

[A]

But it's not good enough for you to be a Gentile. You need to become a Jew so that you can then be a Christian.

[B]

Yeah, that's right.

[A]

I think that seems.

[B]

Yeah, they're bringing some Gentiles aren't going to be saved.

[A]

You got to be a Jew, you got to be circumcised. Make yourself a Jew. And so they want to shut you out of the family of Abraham that you may make much of them. Oh, wow, you guys are so great. Because anyway, I. I wonder if there's a little bit of that going on here. Verse 18. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in. So here Paul is talking about his great love for the people here, and he's describing himself as being in the anguish of childbirth. What a strange image to use for a man, wouldn't you say?

[B]

Sort of a. Yeah. Paul talks about himself in 1 Thessalonians also as like a nursing mother.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Paul doesn't just say, right. We're only going to use masculine types of images. For myself, he uses motherly ones as well. Right. And this is really an important part of the Christian message. Right. Because what happens when you're baptized. That's right. You're born again. And so if bringing somebody to Christ is like giving them new birth. Right. Then all of us are like midwives under God. Right. Or like mothers.

[A]

Right. And being brought into the oneness of the church, which is commander stood as mother Church here. Right. And. And I love this idea that Paul is in anguish until Christ is formed in you. And that's a message that we should all sort of reflect on, that in this life, Christ is constantly being formed in us. Yes. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. But there's a sense in which this is a lifelong process. Right. Of being made more and more in conformity to the image of the Son. Paul says in Romans 8. Right. That we are to be become conformed to the image of Christ. Paul is in anguish here because it seems like these false teachers are leading them astray and Christ is not going to be fully formed in them. And so what will happen is they will be cut off from Christ and they'll lose that life that is in them. And he says, I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. And kind of gives us an insight into Paul's relationship with the. With the Galatians as well. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He seems to have a different tone in person than he does in his letters.

[B]

And it reminds us, too, when we read Galatians, it's really easy to look and notice. We should notice it that Paul's kind of like, cranked here.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Right. He's got white knuckles. Right. I mean, he's not holding the pen until the end because he tells us he picks it up, but.

[A]

Right.

[B]

He's raring.

[A]

Right? Right.

[B]

And sometimes he kind of jumps. Right. And he doesn't always, like, explain things in this sort of nice, like. Okay, now let's think about it this way.

[A]

Now.

[B]

Do I mean this. No, of course not. Let's go on and talk about. Right. He does that in some of his other letters. It ain't happening here.

[A]

Right.

[B]

This is one of the only letters where he doesn't have a Promise to come and visit them in the near future. Right. He just says, I wish I could, but I can't. And so I have to write you this really kind of like rough, really insistent appeal to get you back, because he doesn't know if he's going to see him again, it seems.

[A]

And this is a really important thing to consider. Right. Oftentimes people imagine that to be pastoral, to reach people where they are, you have to sort of bend over backwards. You have to accommodate people. You never want to use a tone that might be strong, that might be off putting. But Paul is identifying himself in this passage as a mother, right? And he's recognizing that in order to enable you to be fully formed, to have Christ fully formed in you, he needs to use a tone that's commensurate with the situation. And so here Paul is using somewhat harsh language. And we're gonna see that harsh language continue in Galatians. But in no way should we mistake that for a lack of love for the Galatians. No. He sees them as his little children. So when you're dealing with little children, sometimes you have to use a tone that's going to help them understand that there is a severity to the circumstances that. So, you know, I tell my son Simon, don't run out in the middle of the street. Don't run out in the middle of the street. You really shouldn't run out in the middle of the street. That's not going to get his attention if he's in the immediate circumstance where he's in danger of being run over by a car. Right. And for Paul, that those are the stakes here.

[B]

Yeah. This. This literally happened to my wife a couple of weeks ago. She was getting her car fixed and the mechanics place was right on the corner of two big streets.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the two year old ran out and was very close to being hit by a car. And the man, the mechanic was a really good guy. He stepped out and he just screamed,

[A]

stop, stop where you are. And that got his attention.

[B]

And so my child went and turned back around and ran to mom, right? And she spent the next day or two, right, Crying like that man was mean, right? She's like, yeah, but you're alive, right? Paul doesn't have a problem in this case, right. If he was with them, he could change his tone because he could teach them through it, but he can't. He could just write this letter. And so he's got no problem yelling out, don't do this. Because if they do this right, they

[A]

will cut themselves off from the life of Christ and death is the circumstance that they are going to face, real death. And we're going to talk more about what that life and death looks like in our next episode as we move into Paul's teaching further in Galatians 4 and 5. I want to thank you for joining us. I want to thank you for being part of our mission here at the Augustine Institute, especially those of you who are part of the mission circle, all the donations that you've so generously provided. Make it possible for us to be able to teach the word of God, to be able to make these videos. Thank you so very much for your help. Until next time. May God bless you and your family.