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Galatians 4:8 8<\/span><\/sup>But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. Truth to Learn Before we were saved we may have thought that we were serving God, but we weren\u2019t. We were merely performing ritualistic practices.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The Greek words translated \u201cyou did not know<\/span><\/em>\u201d are \u201couk eidotes<\/span><\/em>.\u201d The word \u201couk<\/span><\/em>\u201d implies the absolute negative<\/em> and the word \u201ceidotes<\/span><\/em>\u201d is a form of \u201ceid\u014d<\/span><\/em>\u201d which means to see<\/em>. But it carries more than just the notion of beholding something; it means to perceive it and is, therefore, often used in the sense of perceptual knowledge<\/em>.<\/p>\n The word translated \u201cserved<\/span><\/em>\u201d is \u201cdouleu\u014d<\/span><\/em>,\u201d a verb formed from the noun \u201cdoulos<\/span><\/em>\u201d which, as we have recently seen, refers to a slave of the lowest order. Hence, this verb means to be an abject slave to someone or something<\/em>.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained Back in verse three of this chapter, Paul informed the Galatian Christians that when they were children, spiritually speaking, they were under bondage to the elemental ritualistic practices of religion. He now harkens back to that state and informs them of some additional truths about their former religious practices.<\/p>\n First of all, Paul declares that at that time they did not know God; that is, they did not perceive who and what He really is. He also tells them that although they thought they were serving God, they were in fact serving something other than the true God. He describes what they were serving as \u201cthose which by nature are not gods.\u201d These were false gods and no better than inanimate idols.<\/p>\n There has been some discussion as to whether Paul is referring to the Galatian converts from Judaism or from paganism. It appears, however, that this can be applied to either group. If it refers to the Jewish converts, Paul tells them that even though they thought they were serving the true God, they were simply performing ritualistic temple practices that were ineffectual. If it refers to the pagan converts, Paul is telling them that the worship they offered to their idols was likewise ineffectual.<\/p>\n In either case, the ritualism was not a service to God! In the coming verses Paul will show the Galatians that the teachings of their false teachers were actually taking them back to ritualism that has no value in true worship of God.<\/p>\n Application Our churches today are filled with ritualistic practices and things that are done in a way prescribed by man. Whether it is the reciting of a memorized prayer or response, the genuflection required at certain times or places within a liturgy, or the singing of a particular song when the offering is being presented on the altar, it\u2019s all ritual.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what\u2019s wrong with ritual,\u201d you may ask. Nothing, as long as we recognize that it is simply ritual and has absolutely no spiritual significance whatsoever! God does not want ritualism; he wants submissive devotion and worship. When we perform our ritualistic practices, we may be making ourselves feel better and we may be pleasing the leadership and other members of our church, but we are doing nothing for God.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2007 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to: Galatians 4:8 8But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. Truth to Learn Before we were saved we may have thought that we were serving God, but we weren\u2019t. We were merely performing ritualistic practices. Behind the Words The Greek words translated \u201cyou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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