The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 260

by any means I have besoowed!labour upon you in vain." They had come to know God, i.e. w_hen. the _gospel ~as preached among them. It was then that they first knew God m his unity and m bis rel\l character as a God of love. But havino- said this, he corrects himself. It was rather that they had come to be known' of God• for it was purely of God that the gospel came to them. 'l'hey were not thinking of it; even Paul was not thinking of it; for it did not lie within his plan to preach the gospel to the~. By a singul~r provideuc~, to which he refers iu the next paragraph, he was constramed to turn aside to Galatia. It was God, then, that had given them the acls~nt~ge. The relapse from Chri,stianity into Judai,sm as o.ffccting the position of the Christian sabbath. How are we to understand the language which is employed in this place and in Col. ii. 16, 17 ? .Are we to infer from the teaching of the apostle (for it is no ~oi:e than an inference, and a sta_rtli1:1g thing it is to be left to inference) that, as Christians, we arc rehe"ed from obhgat10n to keep sacred one day in seven? It is not unneccgsary, in view of all that has been written on these passages, to guard ao-ainst an understatement of the difficulty. For instance, it is said by Ridgeley and ~tbcrs that certain feast days, being withdrawn from a common to a sacred use, were called sabbaths, and that the apostle alludes exclusively to these. Unless tbe difficulty is fairly admitted and mastered, it is sure to leave doubt on the mind, and to be ever corning up for settlement in exegesis. There is really only one difficulty but it is presented under different forms. The passages in question are similar ( so much so that the same writer can readily be detected in both. There are two statements in Galatians, and these correspond to two statements ii;i. Colossians. Taking, then, the parts which correspond as one, we have to deal with two state- ments. (a) There is a statement about distinctions of times. The statement made by the apostle in this Epistle is that Christians, by observing days, and months, and seasons, and years, were returning to bondage, and that, on that account, he was afraid of them, lest he had bestowed labour upon them in vain. In the preceding context his teaching is that they have the liberty of sons, and are not as under tutors and governors. It is to be noted that the bondage referred to was in making distinctions as to times. His order of classification is to begin with the more frequent and to proceed to the less frequent observances. There are first days, or weekly observances; then there are months, or observances connected with the new moon ; at a longer interval are the seasons, or great festive occasions, of which there were three in tbe year; and, at the longest interval, are the years, in which the reference is to the sabbatic year and the year of jubilee. The corresponding statement in Colossians is that Christians are not to be judged in meat or in drink (or, in eating and drinking), or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day (Revised Version), on the ground, as given in the context, that the handwriting which contained these things has been put ont of the way, being nailed to the cross. Under the head of distinctions there is a sub-classification having reference to distinctions in meats and drinks. As to meats, there were some that were appropriated to holy uses, and numerous prohibitions a.re mentioned in Lev. vii. 10-27. .As for drinks by themselves, wine was forbidden to the Nazarites and also oo the priests during the time of service. 'l'he apostolic teaching is that Christiane are entitled to disregard such distinctions. The classification of times in Colossians (years being omitted) proceeds in the reverse order from the less frequent to the more frequent, beginning with the feast day, and ending with the sabbath day. What meaning is to be attached to tbe sabbath day will be seen; but the apostolic teaching is plainly this-that, as Christians are freed from the observance of the three principal feasts, and freed from the observance connected with the new moon, so also are they freed from the observance of the se.bbath day. In reference to the passage in our Epistle, Alford remarks, "Notice how utterly such a verse is at variance with any and every theory of a Christian sabbath, cuttino- at the root, as it does, of all obligatory observance of times a~ such." A.ild similar re°marks are made by him elsewhere. But: (it) In that view of it, the conclusion is a much wider one than can consistently be admitted. It is not merely that we are under no obligation to observe a Christian eabbath, or, in other words, that we are free to observe it or not as we see fit ; but it goes further, and is this-that the observance of a Christian sabbath impUea fault. We accept .Alford's remark on the word translated "observe." There does not seem oo be any meaning of superstitious cm, xv. 1-31.J THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 227