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Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Truth to Learn Those who would please God must do so through faith, not through obeying a set of rules and regulations.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201cdesire<\/span>\u201d is a form of thelo<\/span><\/em> which was pointed out in the previous verse as meaning \u201cto will, wish, or desire, implying active volition and purpose.\u201d This word means more than simple desire (which would be the Greek word boulomai<\/span><\/em>) and is sometimes translated as \u201cdetermine<\/span>.\u201d To illustrate the difference, imagine a child being given a dollar and told to buy whatever he or she wants. Though the child may desire (boulomai<\/span><\/em>) many things, he or she will determine (thelo<\/span><\/em>) what can be purchased for a dollar. We can see, therefore, that Paul is saying, \u201cyou who are determined<\/strong> to be under law<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the law<\/span>\u201d should actually be translated \u201cunder law<\/span>\u201d since there is no definite article in the Greek text. This, therefore, is not a reference to the Law of Moses but refers to any collection of required actions as a means of attaining holiness and acceptance with God.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained Paul now abruptly changes his subject matter. He has been comparing his relationship with the Galatian Christians to the relationship that they had with the false teachers. Paul has expressed his tenderness and concern for their welfare whereas the false teachers were only interested in their own personal interests, not really caring for or about the Galatians.<\/p>\n He now goes back to the difference between the liberating simplicity of the gospel message and the imprisoning complexity of the message of the legalistic teachers. In this verse he begins an allegory equating being bound under a set of legal requirements with Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar, and being free through the covenant of promise to Isaac, the son or Sarah. Ishmael was rejected by Abraham because he was not the son of promise whereas Isaac was accepted and blessed because he was the fulfillment of God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n Paul starts off this section of his letter with a rhetorical question. This question is addressed to \u201cyou who are determined to be under law.<\/span>\u201d Paul is pointing out to the Galatians that there is an inner drive of theirs which was compelling them to be under a strict set of rules and laws. This is an example of man\u2019s attempt to please God through religion. No matter how strict the adherence to these rules and laws and no matter how sincere a person is in doing these things, he or she can not please God and can not be free.<\/p>\n The rhetorical question is, \u201cdo you not hear the law?<\/span>\u201d In other words, do you not hear what the law is telling you? Do you not understand how you are enslaving yourselves by trying to satisfy the requirements of the law? He will continue with his allegory in the following verses.<\/p>\n Application Is it your desire to know God more completely and to live in a manner that will please Him? If so, then you must determine to do so through faith, not through obeying a set of rules or church ordinances.<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2008 <\/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: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Truth to Learn Those who would please God must do so through faith, not through obeying a set of rules and regulations. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cdesire\u201d is a form of thelo which was […]<\/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-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","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=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/signature.gif\")
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