How are you doing this week? Well, I hope! Let’s finish up chapter three in Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia and move on to chapter four. There are a lot of interesting things for us to get into, so let’s begin!
We ended at verse 25 last week, so starting at verse 26, we can see Paul shift into a message of unity to the members of these churches (Galatians 3:26-29). He talks about being unified in Yeshua, and not being identified by their former categories of Jew and Greek. This is a message we see elsewhere in Paul’s writing to try and get readers to realize they need to start thinking anew rather than how they did in their former life, before Yeshua (Colossians 3:11). As a side note, if you remember from one of our previous studies, there are two different Greek words used to translate into Gentile in scripture, and here, Paul uses the word Hellen vice the general term ethnos.
Interestingly enough, this message from Paul ties to one from the Old Testament, and subsequently to one of the teachings Yeshua gives in response to an attempt to trap Him. When the commandments were given to the people of Israel, one of the things said to them by Moses was that YHWH is One (Deuteronomy 6:4), the same way Paul said that believers are one in Yeshua. Moses’s statement of oneness was also quoted by Yeshua when the scribes challenged Him with what He considered the most important commandment (Mark 12:29).
Now, the Greek word used by Paul is simply the number one, which is obviously a common word and because of that we can’t get too much out of studying that specific word. We have to look at the overall message when this word is used. In these uses, we’ve got a situation with multiple entities being called one, so what does that tell us?
In the case of YHWH, we know based on scripture that while there are three different parts to Him, Yeshua, YHWH and the Holy Spirit, they all operate in a unified manner, with the same goals, to achieve one result. This is most clearly evident when we look at the baptism of Yeshua and how YHWH spoke from heaven, Yeshua was being baptized physically, and the Holy Spirit was seen descending in the form of a dove (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22). Paul’s statement follows this message, except in reference to the body of Yeshua, which are the believers, and Yeshua Himself. What he’s saying is that when we are walking with Him, truly listening and following His lead, all believers are working in that same way, with the same goals, and achieving one result: Yeshua’s will (which, by extension, is YHWH’s will, of course).
Another thing Paul mentions in this passage is “putting on,” or “clothing yourselves with” Yeshua. Again, the Greek word used is semi-common, and is used elsewhere in scripture in reference to literal physical clothing. Clearly, we are not literally, physically putting Yeshua on, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about it in that way. More on that in a moment.
What Paul is talking about is a figurative “putting on” of Yeshua. He also uses this word in other letters when he talks about putting on the “armor” of YHWH (Ephesians 6:10-17), the “armor” of light (Romans 13:12), and the “new self” (Colossians 3:10). These are all figurative phrases relating to the concept of a change in a certain aspect of someone or the whole of that person.
In culture at the time, and something that we even see still today, a person’s clothing represented a certain social status or role (although today it seems like some higher social status folks choose less or no clothing to “show” their status!). Expensive clothing, with unique dyes or materials, at the time showed a status of wealth. Certain garments showed a religious role, while others like military uniforms showed one associated with the governing side of society.
We should look at clothing ourselves with Yeshua not as a status symbol obviously, but as a representation of our role in the world. Yeshua would be the first to point out that it’s not about status given all the teaching He gave that was counter to the societal status views of the time. We should also look at it as us being the literal image of Yeshua. In other words, that the world sees us as Him, and therefore, whatever we do is a reflection on Him.
It’s no mistake that Paul, in the same sentence, mentions baptism with the “putting on” of Yeshua. Baptism is the public, visual action taken to represent a spiritual, non-visual event in one’s life. Likewise, clothing ourselves in Yeshua is our public representation of our new spiritual being in Him. We can’t literally put on a new body, but we can act as the new person that we are by embodying the traits and thought processes of Yeshua. The ones He taught and demonstrated during His ministry.
The last thing mentioned in this chapter by Paul is once again the connection between Abraham and YHWH’s promise, and the believer that is in Yeshua. By getting rid of the Jew and Greek labels earlier in the passage, Paul not only associates the non-Jew with something they had never even known about, let alone been associated with, he essentially pulls the Jew backward in time, out of the mindset and focus of being in the Law and into a blessing that existed prior to that and the crippling-by-thousands-of-restrictions oral tradition that was born from it. He continues with an analogy about heirs as we can see in the next chapter.
Paul’s elaboration of the heir status pulls in the concept of slavery that we see in another letter he wrote (Galatians 4:1-7, Romans 6:6, 20). He didn’t just come up with concept himself, Yeshua talked about being slaves to sin as well (John 8:34). He gets more into slavery and a comparison to an Abraham-related situation later, so for now, we’re going to focus on the heir aspect.
In society at the time, having an heir and the process of passing down inheritance was a focus, especially for the wealthy or high status individuals. When the heir was underage and therefore unable to make such major decisions as what to do with an estate, someone was designated to make those decisions for him. You’ll notice that depending on what version of scripture you have, the same word for this position is used here as in the previous chapter when referring to a child’s tutor or teacher. We talked about that role in Roman society last week. However, the Greek word Paul uses, as you might suspect, is vastly different in the two instances.
If we confuse these two by using the same English word, we can end up with some very wrong conclusions, so let’s cover the two words Paul uses in chapter four to make sure we understand them. The first is epitropos, and it refers to the manager of an estate, as designated by its wealthy owner. In Paul’s context, this manager would have been designated by the father of the heir and appointed if that father was unable to continue taking care of that estate either through sickness or death. The second is oikonomos, and if you recognize the last half of that word you know this word has to do with law, or management. Specifically, it refers to “house law” or “house management,” meaning it was a person that managed a household on behalf of an owner. Generally, this was a freedman, or a slave that had been released from forced servitude.
These words are actually used elsewhere in the New Testament as well, which can give some more context to them. We see epitropos when Yeshua gives the parable of the workers (Matthew 20:8), translated to foreman or steward, depending on your version of scripture. We see oikonomos in the well-known parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:1), translated to manager or steward, again depending on your version of scripture.
So, what does this help us with regarding Paul’s message? As we read on, we see he’s not only connecting slavery to this heir status, he connects the previous life of the believer to being a slave to the “principles” or “elements” of the world. Now, this is an interesting thing to dig into because while the Greek word here is used elsewhere in scripture to talk about various different types of principles, the idea of the “principles of the world” is only used in two other places, both in the same letter.
As expected, this is another thing Paul talks about multiple times, and the other is in his letter to the church in Colossae (Colossians 2:8, 20). In this letter, he connects the concept to “empty/vain deceit” and philosophy, which he says are based on man’s traditions and teachings. One of the things he’s alluding to here is the Jewish oral tradition we referenced earlier that created crippling rules and regulations based on YHWH’s Law. When you look at the usage of that word in the gospels, every single occurrence is a reference to that oral tradition, and most of them are of Yeshua condemning the religious leaders for holding it higher than YHWH’s Law.
By seeing this connection, we come to the conclusion that when Paul talks about the “principles of the world” what he’s referring to are the things that originate from a man with a worldly view, in contrast to things that originate from YHWH, or even from a man with a Godly view. We, as believers, need to make sure we are not still enslaved under the principles of the world like we were before being in Yeshua. As we’ve talked about in previous studies, yes, this can be very difficult at times!
It’s been awhile, so I must again give the caveat that what I’m about to say isn’t intended to offend anyone, and furthermore, if you don’t agree with me, that’s ok! But what I’m coming to find more and more each day is that man is way more clueless about the truth and reality than we can even imagine and many of the things I grew up learning as “facts” are in fact not the truth. I think I mentioned in a previous study learning that they’ve discovered the inside of the earth is not the layers I learned in school, but that fact doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Just as an example, I learned recently that a few years ago they discovered the studies done decades ago that seemed to link plaque in the brain to Alzheimer’s were all based on fraudulent data. Decades and millions, if not billions, of dollars spent studying that plaque in an effort to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s was wasted due to fraudulent data because man just looks to other men and trusts in them to tell the truth and do things right. I only just put this together, but that’s likely why now they found that Alzheimer’s is actually caused by insulin resistance in the brain. They started looking for other causes of the disease after finding out the plaque connection was a fraud. Can you imagine how many people could have been cured or even prevented from getting Alzheimer’s if they had discovered this earlier instead of being distracted by these fraudulent studies?
I truly believe that we are in a time of true enlightenment that has been set into motion by YHWH Himself. We, as believers, need to be open to this enlightenment rather than being enslaved to the principles of the world. Seek the truth. Be cautious of anything that man presents as truth, especially if it has no basis in YHWH or His Word. Put on Yeshua and embody the same thought processes He did when He knew the fraudulence of and preached against the traditions of men that were touted as fact and held the common Jew in bondage and subservience to the religious leaders of their time.
We’ll get into this more next week, but let me leave you with one last thing. The word used by Paul in verse four that’s translated to “born” actually refers to a transition, a change from one place or form to another. This is the same word used by Yeshua when telling the disciples to be wise among the wolves He was sending them to (Matthew 10:16). He could have used a different Greek word to mean simply “be,” but He didn’t. He was telling them to become wise. In other words, learn from your experiences with the wolves and become wiser from those experiences as you continue to spread the gospel. We believers are certainly among wolves, and we need to become wiser with every truth we learn about the “principles of the world.”
Have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
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