Galatians 4:1–7; 1 John 1:5–10; 2:29–3:3

Bible Studies for Life
Assistant Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Samford University

Personal Relationship
Galatians 4:1–7; 1 John 1:5–10; 2:29–3:3
The idea of personal rights, a distinctively American political notion, can become perverted. Self-indulgence is the ugly underside of the idea of inalienable rights endowed by our Creator. We are well aware of harmful behaviors that can be made palatable — at least to the person who does them — by invoking the word “freedom.” Last week, we talked about the folly of working for our own righteousness/justification: being in right relationship with God. The believers in the province of Galatia were circumcising their males in order to become righteous, which directly contradicted Paul’s message that God alone, through Christ, establishes a person in right relationship. These days, we do other things in hopes of making ourselves righteous, but we deny the gospel just as effectively as the Galatians did 2,000 years ago.

We are truly free only when we are adopted into God’s family.

Freedom Gained (Gal. 4:1–7)
Paul did not use the word “freedom” here, but he certainly was talking about it (see the continuation of this section in Galatians 4:31–5:1). In the Roman world, it was quite possible to make the transition from slave to adopted child and become free and an heir. Paul drew on this social reality when he used the metaphor of slavery: The Galatian believers had experienced emancipation from their slavery to “elemental spirits.” The Greek word “stoicheia” is difficult to translate; it can mean either something like “basic principles,” as in a code of behavior like the Torah (when it is followed for the wrong reasons), or demonic powers that enslave humans. Perhaps it can refer to both, for Paul was quite clear that, having experienced the freedom that Christ brings, by seeking righteousness through circumcising their males, the Galatian believers were returning to slavery under oppressing powers.

Remember the lesson from two weeks ago; the kind of freedom Paul talked about is not separation from all bonds (an idea best expressed by the word “liberty”) but full participation in a family or clan of free people (“friend” and “freedom” share the same linguistic root). To be free, paradoxically, is to be bound to God through Christ and one’s fellow believers, God’s family (compare John 8:31–38).

Forgiveness Received (1 John 1:5–10)
The full section is 1 John 1:5–2:11, marked at beginning and end with references to light and darkness, rich metaphors for good and evil, wisdom and ignorance, deception and truth, the current age and the age to come and many other things.  

Notice how the author, like Paul and the author of the Gospel of John, invoked the image of God’s family through his kinship language (2:1, 9–14) and talked about how we have “fellowship” — common love and purpose — with one another (7). How does one become a member of this family, according to the author? One receives forgiveness for sins from God. How are one’s sins forgiven? One begins by telling the truth: We cannot deny that we sin but must admit that we do and confess those sins to God. Paradoxically confession of this type does not lead to conviction and punishment (as it does in so many television crime dramas) but to forgiveness, cleansing from unrighteousness and welcome into God’s family.

Love Embraced (1 John 2:29–3:3)
The idea of God’s family blossoms in this section. When the author talked about “love the Father has given us,” he was picking up on an earlier theme (1 John 2:15–17), and he would return to it again, fleshing it out more completely in Chapters 3 and 4 (see especially 4:7–21). This love is not only love that the Father has for His children but is also at our disposal: We love one another with the “love God has given us.” The reality is it’s sometimes difficult to feel affection for one another; yes, even Christians can feel enmity toward their brothers and sisters. Rather, when we struggle to feel love ourselves, we draw on the Father’s love. Moreover this is love that is acted out, as we see in 1 John 3:16–18.