Turning Back to the Weak Elements: Observing Days and Seasons (Galatians 4:8–10)

The holy Apostle has shown the absurdity of turning to the Law after receiving grace, with the Jews in mind as they were formerly; now he draws the same conclusion regarding the Gentiles as they were formerly (Gal. 4:8–10).

This section, though not extensive, is somewhat obscure in the flow of the discourse and in its connection. In verse 8 the word is clearly addressed to the Gentiles who did not know God; but further on, in verse 9, the speech seems to shift and is directed toward the Jews; for only of them can it be said that they are turning back again to weak and poor elements. Moreover, it is unclear what the initial particle: “but” responds to, for it does not easily connect with the verses immediately preceding it. For this reason, among interpreters, both ancient and modern, there is no agreement. All agree that the speech is addressed to the Gentiles, but not all equally succeed in fitting all the terms used here to them.

“But”—This particle is a responsive particle: what does it respond to? Some say: to the words immediately preceding, as if thus: behold what grace and honor you have received! you have become sons of the true God; whereas before you served gods who are not gods or who do not exist in reality. These first words indeed fit well with this connection, but the further speech does not fit with it at all.

One can suppose an implied or actual objection from the Gentiles to the Apostle: but how is it that formerly you converted us to Judaism with such zeal, and moreover maintained close relations only with those of us who accepted circumcision and everything else; but now you teach that all this is entirely unnecessary? The holy Apostle answers them: but then you did not know God and served false gods; then there was only one true faith on earth—Judaism—and you did well in turning to Judaism: you were passing from falsehood and error to truth. But now, when the true God Himself has called you into communion with Himself, apart from the Law, as you see, why now should you turn to these weak elements, that is, the material worship required by the Law? This connection of the speech comes closer; only one term does not quite fit: “again,” for it does not fit easily with any other interpretation either.

Others hold that here a new discourse begins and the particle: “but” serves merely as a transitional particle, as if thus: but listen, I have yet something else to tell you! Then, in paganism, you served false, imaginary gods, and you served them through elements, offering sacrifices, performing washings, and the like. How then, now that you have come to know the true God and when the true God has received you into such intimate communion, do you now turn back again to those same weak elements to serve God through them?! This connection is more direct. The fact that the Galatian Christians from among the Gentiles were converting not to pagan but to Jewish practices does not create any problem here. For the Jewish practices were all elemental and externally no different from the pagan ones. They received their special value from the fact that they were instituted by God and contained the power of foreshadowing. Now, when they have lost their original significance, they have become entirely equal to pagan elemental worship. The Apostle does not say: you are turning to the same things, but: to like elemental, fleshly worship, implying that their worship should now be spiritual. Saint Chrysostom says: “here the Apostle is already addressing those who have believed among the Gentiles, and he says that the service of idols is the same as the observance of days, and that it now deserves greater punishment than before. The sense of his words is this: then you were so bound to the earth because you lived in darkness and delusion; but now, having come to know God, or rather, being known by Him, do you not deserve greater and harsher punishment when, spurning such great care for you, you willingly subject yourselves again to that same disease from which you suffered before?”

So also all the Eastern commentators—Saint John of Damascus, Ecumenius, Theophylact, and Theodoret. In Theodoret’s words there is a certain overtone. He writes: “The Apostle attempts to prove that the observance of days according to the Law is idolatry. For before you were counted worthy of the calling, he says, you served gods ‘not by nature being gods,’ deifying elements. But from this delusion the Master Christ freed you. Now, however, for some reason, you are returning to that same delusion. For in observing sabbaths, new moons, and other days, and fearing to violate this, you have become like those who deify elements.”

Such is the general thought in these three verses (8–10). We shall make some remarks on them in parts.

Gal. 4:8. But then, not knowing God, you served gods that by nature are not gods.

“Then,”—when you were in paganism, you did not know, he says, God, that is, the true God, who is One. To be without God is impossible: such is our nature that it requires God, and those without God fall outside the order of their nature. For this reason all peoples have had and have a god or gods; but not all know the one true God. The Apostle says: the true God you did not know. But since it is impossible to be without God, you invented false gods and served them.

“You served gods that by nature are not gods. ‘Not by nature being’” μη φυσει ουσι — not by nature, not physically, not really (in reality), not truly being gods at all, but invented ones you served, the fancies of your imagination. Or you served gods who, though they might exist in fact, were not by their nature gods, but: either men who had achieved some distinction and were deified, or heavenly or earthly creatures, or idols, or demons.

The Apostle does not specify what they served. Those to whom the address was made knew what they served: there was no need to speak of it. But we need to bring it to mind: through sacrifices, washings, festivals, and the like. Religions throughout the world naturally clothe themselves in the same form. Everywhere there are temples, or special places; everywhere there are sacred persons; everywhere there are sacred actions; everywhere there are appointed hours, days, and months. Without all this no religion can exist. But only in the true faith does all this express truth and lead to true worship of God and communion with God; in false faiths or those mixed with falsehood, all of this is false and does not lead to what is sought through them.

Gal. 4:9. 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 poor elements, to which you desire to be enslaved once more?

“Having come to know God.” — I came to you with the proclamation, dispelled the darkness of your delusion, pointed you to the true God: behold, you know Him now. This privilege is far from being universal, as you know! But who brought me to you? Who gave me authority to speak among you? Who gave this word such power that it overcame your age-old, ingrained delusion and enabled you to understand the truth? Who converted you yourselves and gave you the strength to depart from the old lie and submit to the new truth? All—God. Therefore it is more fitting to say that it was not you who came to know God, but He who came to know you. He turned His benevolent attention upon you and granted you such an indescribably lofty good. “You did not seek God through your own efforts, for you were living in delusion; but He Himself found you and drew you to Himself” (Saint Chrysostom).

God knows all things and sustains all things in being. But He is said especially to know those whom He calls to the true faith, who hold this faith as they should. For this reason in another place the Apostle says: “the Lord knows those who are His” (see 2 Tim. 2:19). In the same sense also the first Psalm says: “the Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). By this is signified God’s special benevolence, attention, as it were a special acquaintance. Blessed Jerome writes: “The Galatians are called known by God not because God fails to know anything, but because He is said to know only those who have replaced delusion with true piety.”

Such a reminder was most moving for those who had received such mercy from God and then began to turn away from truly pleasing Him. It is such for all people. The Apostle himself brought it to mind (1 Cor. 13:12). And it is not without profit for us to do the same, confessing the great mercy in the fact that we are born among Christians; and immediately upon birth we are born again through grace in the waters of baptism, and then are raised up in the Christian way. What thanksgiving shall we render to the all-merciful Lord for this? May He deliver us from the like misfortune of the Galatians—from turning to weak and poor elements (I mean materialist worldviews)!

“Indirectly, the words: ‘known by God’ may also suggest this thought: you have come to know God; but you have not remained without response from God; He too has known you, and even more. In the true faith it is not the case that there is seeking and striving on the part of men while on God’s part there is nothing. In false faiths, where one turns to gods that do not exist, this is inevitable; for what can one expect from those who do not exist. But in the true faith the true God always answers those who seek Him. They seek after Him, and He draws near to them—indeed, enriching them with spiritual blessings. And there comes about a mutual living union, in which the very essence of faith consists. In Theophylact we read: ‘known…’ received by God (into communion)”.

“Weak and poor elements.” Here the holy Apostle has in mind the same thing that was previously expressed by the words: “the elements of the world.” He means the external ordinances of the legal institutions, which all can be called elemental service to God; because in this service all the elements had their part—fire, water, earth through its produce and animals, air through birds and atmospheric changes, influenced by the courses of the moon and sun, and similar things.

“Weak and poor”—feeble, scanty, had become this legal service after the coming of Christ the Lord; whereas before this service was pleasing to God and produced what God was pleased to connect with it. He who offered a sacrifice for sin departed forgiven; he who received anointing became a sacred person, and so on. The pagan religious actions of a similar kind produced nothing; they were empty, like all their religion. After the coming of Christ the Savior, the Jewish sacred actions too became empty, produced nothing, and became contrary to God, because they were observed against His manifest will. This is what Saint Paul means in the words: you turn back to the weak and poor elements. He says to them, as it were: your former elemental service was empty—it produced nothing. But so too the Jewish elemental service became empty when the time appointed for its existence came to an end. Consequently, in inclining now to the acceptance of the Jewish law, you are doing the same as turning back again to empty, producing-nothing elemental service. How then do you allow yourselves to do this after such great divine benevolence toward you?

Blessed Jerome writes: “The weak and scanty elements—this is the Law. And such it has become for those who turn to it now after the manifestation of the grace of the Gospel. Before the coming of the time appointed by the Father, before the proclamation of the Gospel throughout the world, the legal ordinances had their splendor. But after the greater light of the grace of the Gospel has shone forth and the sun of righteousness has risen over the whole world, the light of the stars is hidden and their rays grow dim. The Law of Moses, rich and abundant and bright before the Gospel, after the coming of Christ the Lord became weak, poor, and entirely nullified by Him who is greater than Solomon, Jonah, and the temple.”

“To which you wish to be enslaved again.” “To be enslaved,” δουλευειν — to work, to serve as slaves. The Apostle is saying: you turn to empty elements, which can give you nothing, and meanwhile you give yourselves into slavery to them, you become slaves. In the Law everything was determined down to the smallest details; through the traditions of the elders these details became so restrictive that it was impossible to take a step without fear of violating something. In accepting the Law, the Galatians would have had to, willy-nilly, submit to all these restrictions, enter into the bonds of slavery. And this, as the Apostle reminds them, after the freedom with which the Lord clothed you through adoption by the grace of the Holy Spirit?! He says: again anew you wish to be enslaved. This is because pagan elemental service too was all determined and represented a kind of slavery to the elements. Although the Galatians were turning now not to pagan but to Jewish elemental service, as they had now come to stand on the same level, they were doing the same as returning to their old—not the same, but similar in meaning and sense.

Gal. 4:10. You observe days and months and seasons and years.

This verse adds nothing new to the thought already expressed, but merely provides a clarifying example of elemental service, slavery to the elements.

“You observe days”—you religiously observe “days,” for example the Sabbath; “months”—new moons; “seasons”—festivals of many days, such as Passover, the Feast of Booths, which also remind of the times of year; “years,” the Sabbatical year or the jubilee of fifty years.

Why did the Apostle touch upon only religiously observed times, and not other things? Either because these times determine everything else; so that in saying this, the Apostle said, as it were: you observe days and of course all that is connected with their observance, that is, the entire Law. Or because the Galatians, inclined toward Judaism, had for the time being begun only to observe days, while not concerning themselves with other things. By these words the measure of their apostasy is defined—to what point the seducers had already succeeded. Circumcision had not yet been accepted; the Galatians lacked the boldness to accept anything else. But the observance of times did not present great difficulties. It was accepted. Although the Galatians may have managed to offer religious observance in the Jewish manner only for the Sabbaths and new moons, or some other fitting festival, the Apostle enumerates the entire circle of religiously observed Jewish times.

Blessed Jerome asks at this point: but do not Christians too have their own days which they honor—what then? Are they also subject to the same reproach? And he answers: among Christians all is spiritual, and all is accomplished in the spirit of freedom.

Let us add to this that Christians have not only religiously honored days, but also their own sacred actions, their own sacred persons, and their own places of worship. And everything connected with this is determined by ecclesiastical tradition. Is not this a bond, fetters, slavery? All this exists among Christians because without external expression we cannot manifest our reverent relations toward God; whether one person alone pours out his soul before God, or many gather together for this in one place—in churches. And Saint Paul the Apostle rejected all the external Jewish institutions not because no external things are needed in Christianity, but because the Jewish external forms no longer corresponded to the spirit of the new faith in Christ, and therefore had to be rejected. Saint Paul, like all the Apostles, in rejecting the Jewish elemental worship, instituted everywhere his own Christian worship—a rational, spiritual, reasonable service. The outline of all our external order was given by the Apostles; the details were determined later: time has hallowed them. Thus we have the ecclesiastical tradition!

Yet this is still a bond; where then is Christian freedom? It is here. The tradition, though it determines: act in this and this way, does not say that when you have fulfilled everything according to what is written, you have completed the task, and that is enough. On the contrary, it prescribes entering into the spirit of what is prescribed, so that you act from the spirit, as it were from yourself, with full understanding and full willingness, and consequently freely. Mere external action is indeed a bond and fetters; but when that for which this action is prescribed has been received by mind and heart, then the action ceases to be binding—it develops freely from the spirit. And all our Christian external order flowed forth from the spirit. Judaism proceeded from the external to the internal. Christianity flows forth from within and clothes itself in beautiful external form, like a living plant clothed with leaves and flowers. The fact that all this has been established in a definite form does not prevent it from being living everywhere and in every person, flowing forth from the spirit, free. One need only hold to one law: enter into the spirit of what is prescribed, unite it with your mind and heart, and, always fulfilling it, you will act from yourself freely, feeling no bondage from the external form.

Thus the tradition does not bind Christian freedom, requiring that all that is prescribed be fulfilled in the spirit. But it does not bind because there is nothing in the Christian external observances about which, as about Jewish observances, one could say: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, except for the unchanging form of the seven Divine mysteries. We have external forms because as humans we cannot be without external forms. We honor reverently the established external observances because they have been sanctified by antiquity and have testified to their fittingness and value by forming and conducting into the heavenly dwellings so many multitudes of saints. But the established observances among us are not of such a kind that the Church is bound by them as by bonds of slavery and can change or abolish nothing in them. The Church, Christianity, is completely free in regard to them; and if it finds that something has ceased to be beneficial, it can either abolish it entirely, or replace it with something new, as well as introduce something new that it deems necessary. And whoever would assert that our observances are completely sacred, except for the form of administering the mysteries, would have fallen into Judaism with its: do not touch. The Church of God has always enjoyed and enjoys such freedom; only not in such a way that one day it is one thing, the next day another.

Reverently, with fear and trembling, every prescribed action must be performed—reading, singing, gesture; but not because such action—in its place another could be performed—but insofar as it is directed toward God. He who does God’s work with negligence is cursed. Whoever would assert that fear and trembling should be directed toward the very actions themselves and they should be performed in this spirit would display in himself a Judaizing spirit.

In reverently performing the prescribed observances, we believe that we are drawing God’s regard upon us, God’s benevolence toward us; but not because we have performed this particular observance: the power is not in the observance itself, but in our filial, full of faith and devotion to God raising of mind and heart. Whoever would ascribe special power to the observances themselves, insofar as such, apart from the Divine mysteries, would begin to Judaize.

Some people wish (and there are sects of this kind) to strip Christianity of all external form; and this desire they think to justify by the teaching of the Apostle Paul concerning the needlessness of the Jewish Law for Christians. They have not paid proper attention to the fact that that same Saint Paul, who set aside all Jewish observances, instituted his own Christian observances everywhere. It appears to them that any external form at all is already Judaism, and they cry out: Judaism, works-righteousness! But they refuse to understand that Judaism consists not in the existence of external forms, but in the fact that these external forms are performed and honored in the Jewish manner.

They themselves imagine that they have stripped themselves of all external form and serve God in spirit, purely in the Christian manner. Meanwhile, when they turn to God, they adopt a certain posture and conduct special speech toward God. What is this if not an observance? An observance, only a self-prescribed one. Such wise men cannot have common assemblies: they do not recognize them as necessary and cannot grasp the understanding of the Church of God as one body. It is remarkable that they do not even make the sign of the cross. Is it not evident that the spirit that teaches them and dwells in them fears the cross, which has crushed all the power of the enemy.

We who are temporarily spatial cannot be without external observances. Even the Angels have their own orders. And in the age to come there will be their own. And everything in them has its own time, place, and order. Only in the spirit can the service to God be and should be continuous, not bounded by time, place, or position.