Amen. We continue our study in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, beginning at the first verse of chapter four. Paul writes, ‘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. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father.’ But you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that are by nature not gods. But now that you have 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, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.’ This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you give us your word to be a lamp, and sometimes that lamp shines upon the darkness within us and makes us see truths that we would not want to see. Sometimes the word of your Scripture tells us where there’s even doubt over us regarding whether or not your Gospel is effective and works within us. Build us up. Give us encouragement to know and believe that there is nothing vain that falls from your word. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So, after his lengthy encouragements concerning Christian unity in Christ Jesus, the positive reasons and benefits of the law, and our great hope and trust in the promises of God, Paul once more returns to the original cause for his letter: his concern that the Galatians were trading the freedom found only by faith in Jesus Christ alone for a return to enslavement by works of the law. They were trading the authority of Christ for servitude under the rule of the prince of this world, Satan.
The enslavement that we are all under before our regeneration by the Holy Spirit, before we are born again, is a very common theme of Paul’s. He writes elsewhere in Romans 6:6, saying, ‘We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.’ In Romans 7:14, he states, ‘For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.’ In 1 Corinthians 3:1, he writes, ‘But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.’
He speaks to this especially in Ephesians chapter 2, saying, ‘And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.’
See, the gospel which Paul preached—that we have been saved from divine judgment and enslavement to sin, having been adopted into divine sonship—is our deliverance from this evil age. We are no longer slaves; we are now sons, children, and heirs with Christ. Jesus Christ is our Lord and master and our elder brother. But we must not forget just what and from whom we have been rescued.
Paul reminds us here that before Christ came, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Just what are those principles? He uses here an expression, stoichia to cosmo, an expression without a single clear and established unique meaning. To better understand it, we need to first look elsewhere within Scripture to see how else it is used, and how that relates to our prior enslavement.
Paul uses the expression again in Colossians 2:8, saying, ‘See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.’ Here, philosophy, tradition, and elemental spirits are treated as being synonymous and equivalent with one another, for they are each things that may lead believers away from Christ, taking us captive body and soul.
Then Peter uses stoichia twice in his second letter as a reference to heavenly bodies, saying, ‘But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.’ This suggests that the sun, moon, stars, and planets are the basic pieces of heaven’s creation—objects which we all know held some sort of astrological significance for divination and or zodiac influence in the many pagan beliefs.
Then the author of Hebrews uses the word stoichia as a generic word to mean simply basic principles, writing, ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.’ Now, because of Paul’s remarks elsewhere regarding powers and principalities, dominions, and the prince of the power of the air, we may think it reasonable to apply significant spiritual meaning to these stoichia here in Galatians, believing that he intends demons and angels. This is because there is a clear recorded history of people personifying and worshiping these elements and astral bodies.
However, I believe that Paul’s intention here is something even more simple than to merely cast blame for Christian backsliding upon demonic influence amid spiritual warfare in the church. Now, I do not deny the presence of demonic forces in the world, nor do I deny that there is a spiritual war being raged all around us even now. But I do not think that this is Paul’s main thrust in this case.
Even as it is partially related, the broad concept of stoichia, as defined by Aristotle, is ordinarily used to describe the most basic and simple components or elements which make up anything complex—much like the modern use of words like elements, parts, ingredients, atoms, or even bits. Stoichia are defined naturally by the specific context in which they are used because they are the lowest common denominators of every complex system.
The stoichia of the alphabet are letters; the stoichia of music are the notes; the stoichia governing the science of physical mechanics would be Newton’s three laws of motion; the stoichia of bread would be the basic ingredients of flour, water, salt, sugar, and yeast.
But the stoichia of the universe are not angels or demons. Now, during the first century, stoichia as related to the cosmos—the world—should ordinarily be understood as the four basic elements known: earth, air, fire, and water. These elements were believed to comprise all things yet within the context of Paul’s argument here, as well as in Colossians and in Hebrews, stoichia to cosmo is better understood as meaning the basic social principles which govern human life in this world.
So what are those principles? Gravity, celestial mechanics, the sun rising in the east and then setting in the west, surging ocean tides, and the changing of seasons—yes, in part. We are not freed by the cross from the continuing influence of those principles in our lives. But the other part is comprised of the whys and hows in which we treat and interact with one another.
So, is it civil and criminal law? Morality or ethics? Are they economic forces and the invisible hand of Adam Smith or even simply supply and demand? What are the true elemental principles that govern human relationships? Last week we considered with Paul three specific pairs of relationships which impact and influence every person’s life. Within this context, they were examples of relational stoichia to which Paul now adds the practice of religion.
Like the impact upon our relational lives of the differences between the sexes, between servants and masters, or between nations, religion is the foundation and bedrock upon which all civil society is established. It governs right and wrong; it defines morality and establishes whatever value is ascribed to human life.
So the important question then remains: What is your religion? Everyone has a religion, especially those people who claim no religion. They’re just not being honest with themselves because everyone worships something. So whatever forms the basis of a person’s sense of morality is their religion.
Unfortunately, many people seem to base theirs upon whatever feels good, upon their own personal desires, and amoral relativism, with themselves as their god and sole arbiter of goodness—self-absorbed, self-righteous, given over entirely and enslaved to their sinful passions. Meanwhile, those people who follow other religions—Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, natural paganism, etc.—apparently possess a shared and defined ethical and moral code which can contain some of the truth but is never the truth, nor can they provide any substantive hope or assurance beyond this life, worthless for salvation.
These false faiths may still generate decent and kind people because they possess within them some understanding of God’s eternal and holy law. Here, Paul correlates the Judaizer’s demand upon Gentile believers to keep the whole law of Moses in addition to faith in Christ with the Galatians’ past pagan practices, asking us, ‘How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?’
So the problem which Paul is really addressing here is idolatry—our enslavement to worthless idols, a trap which even the most devout Christian may still fall into and be unwittingly snared by. Just as the four natural elements became idols, personified and attributed with deity, worshiped by the many pagan religions of history—the condemnation of which we find throughout Scripture in every warning against Israel’s friendliness with the surrounding nations and is expressly condemned in the writings of Isaiah—so too may the practice of religion become an idol as well.
They are all clearly examples of idolatrous worship of the creation instead of the Creator and are strongly condemned by Paul in Romans 1, saying, ‘They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.’ Although those elements possess no divinity, people would still petition those spirits or powers which they believe govern these stoichia or principalities, hoping to influence them and gain their favor. They mistook the spiritual forces for gods and believed that they had the power to save or rescue them from their troubles.
Yet even those powers are still governed by and are under the sovereign authority of the Lord. Remember, even Satan must receive permission from the Lord before he can act. Satan is neither all-powerful nor is he sovereign over anything. Yes, there are spiritual forces and powers in the universe that are far greater and more powerful than we humans are, but regardless, they are still only creatures like us.
Those powers which desire and accept man’s worship are demonic. Worship of anything other than the Lord is by definition satanic. Meanwhile, those powers which reject human devotion and always redirect our worship towards Jesus Christ are the angelic.
The problem with religion that causes Paul such grief here is that even those possessing the correct faith and practicing right religion can allow their religion to become as much of an idol as the seasons or the elements. Even obedience to the Torah, the law of God, and even Christian piety or a desire to do good works in the name of Jesus may become an idol.
Anything which distracts us from the worship of Jesus Christ, God our Father, and the Holy Spirit alone—any hope or confidence which we may feel that is not grounded in the finished work of Christ and comes from our own efforts, any reliance that we place in our own works, any of our self-justified deservedness or claim on earning the Lord’s favor—becomes a worthless idol and has as much spiritual benefit for us as any prehistoric stone statue or carved icon.
Paul writes of his despair over the Galatians and all believers who are stumbling and staggering through these kinds of trials, accusing them of falling into the same theological errors as ancient Israel, saying, ‘You observe days and months and seasons and years.’ Observing, as in to celebrate these things as being worshipful, just as Isaiah once accused the kingdom of Judah for their vain temple worship: ‘When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.’
So Paul urges us to repent. He urges the Galatians to repent by combining perfect obedience to Moses with faith in Christ. Their works of religion and worship had taken on a greater importance to them than the importance of the one to whom their worship is meant to be directed: the Lord alone. By heeding the teachings of the Judaizers—practicing Christ plus the law and making that their hope for divine justification and their eternal salvation—they achieved as much spiritual benefit as they had in their past worship of the Roman pantheon: absolutely none.
Paul reminds us that any religion which can be defined as Christ plus is, in truth, Christ-less. Now, the relational stoichia in general are not without their merits. These elementary principles governing human interactions and relationships—found in the instruction of Torah, or even in the Gentiles’ pagan upbringing or in secular education—are not being universally condemned by Paul, although their power to save anyone’s soul is denied because our hope is no longer enslaved to them.
As firstborn heirs united in Christ, Paul writes 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. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Before we had received the knowledge of our salvation in Christ, we were enslaved to those stoichia. They were all that we knew, and they were all that we had to hope in—a vain hope.
The Jew who only knew the Torah depended upon their faithful fulfillment of each and every commandment to be deemed righteous before the Lord and be judged good before men. The Gentile pagan, who had their choice of many different religions, philosophies, or ethos, still held to common understandings regarding some kind of universal morality and ethics and established standard of goodness and righteousness which everyone followed.
Although only one of these systems contained the whole truth—capital T truth, directing our hearts and souls and minds to the Lord, directing us to recognize Christ and the salvation he brought—the intrinsic value found within both religions, that bit which is both good and profitable for all people to know and live by, comes from their role as guardians and managers, preparing us for maturity and our day of inheritance.
Now we’ve discussed before how one of the most important purposes of the law for God’s people is to be our teacher, training us for righteousness, even while we cannot ever hope to satisfy its rigorous standards. So too, the Lord has provided similar teachers in goodness and righteousness for those who live apart from knowledge of his law, as revealed to Moses, writing it upon the hearts of wise men or philosophers and allowing this knowledge to be taught among all men.
Paul writes in Romans chapter 2, ‘For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.’
Proving yet again that hope for salvation cannot ever be found through any works of the law—by either the Jew or the Gentile—but is only found by faith in Jesus Christ. Once we were all slaves under the authority of the law and the stoichia of the cosmos, but then we received the spirit of adoption and became the sons and children of our heavenly father. No longer enslaved, but now heirs with a promise.
Now the benefits we received from our time under the governorship of these stoichia become apparent and are applied to our lives as children of God. Paul explains to us here in very simple terms just how this complex adoption occurred: ‘But when the fullness of time had come…’ The fullness of time is kairos time—the correct, appropriate, appointed, ordained, and just right moment in redemptive history. God sent forth his Son, God the Son, eternally begotten of the Father, neither made nor created, who possesses the same essence, is composed of the very same substance as the Father, and possesses divinity by nature—fully God, born of woman; became a human like us, adding to himself by taking on our same nature and form, fully man and fully God, unmixed and undivided, without changing.
He was born under the law, born under the authority of both God’s eternal law and the laws of men, born to redeem those under the law by first satisfying all the righteous requirements of God’s holy word, and then by the only righteous man dying the death due for the unrighteous many in their place—the only just man dying under the unjust condemnation of human law—so that the unrighteous many would become justified before the divine judgment seat, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Thus, we receive the Spirit of Christ into our soul, and we make that most intimate of cries, ‘Abba, Father,’ not formal with our heavenly Father, but relational and so very close to our Daddy.
Now we are children, no longer slaves. When we were slaves, we were the heirs of nothing, living under the elementary principles and enslaved to Satan’s power. Then God the Son, Jesus Christ, who is the heir to everything, redeemed us by becoming like us, being born of woman, born under the authority of these same elementary principles so that we could become like him—children with an inheritance, no longer slaves.
And so now we possess and are possessed by the Spirit of Christ; we cry ‘Abba’ as we await our date of maturity when we shall possess our full inheritance with Christ in his kingdom. Then we shall live according to all that is good which we have learned from being trained by the stoichia, walking in righteousness like Christ Jesus.
How could we ever turn back to reliance upon the weak and worthless stoichia of the cosmos? Why would we ever want to turn away from the salvation which is given by grace alone, through faith alone, to instead try to earn that which is impossible to achieve?
We couldn’t. We wouldn’t. But we shall not despair because the good news is that neither Paul nor the other apostles nor the four evangelists nor the prophets of the old covenant, nor Jesus Christ, nor the Lord God himself have labored over us in vain. What God has ordained, what he has commanded, must surely come to pass, and it surely will.
The Lord will preserve and persevere his saints through the end of this present evil age until we enter into the eternal and perfect country which we patiently await. Take courage; be steadfast in your faith, because we are sons, not slaves. We are loved by the Lord, and even though we still must operate in this life according to those stoichia of the cosmos, they are not our hope for salvation or our source of justification. They do not bind our souls, and they cannot keep us from the presence of our Abba. Amen.