Galatians 4:8-14: a reflection

8However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? 10You observe days, months, seasons, and years. 11I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you. 12I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong, 13but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. 14That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Paul says something here and then immediately improves on it. Now that you have come to know God, he writes, and then corrects himself, or rather to be known by God. It is a small self-correction with a large truth in it. Yes, you have come to know God, but the deeper and steadier fact is that God knows you. The relationship does not finally rest on the firmness of your grasp on him, but on his grasp on you.

That is worth resting in, because our knowing of God fluctuates. Some days he feels near and real, other days distant and dim, and if everything depended on the strength of our knowing, we would be on shaky ground. But Paul points past that to the surer thing: you are known by God. His knowledge of you, his hold on you, does not waver with your moods. You are known.

And notice Paul's worry in the passage. Having been set free, the Galatians were drifting back toward the old bondage, the weak and beggarly things they had been freed from. It is a strange pull, but a real one, to return to a slavery Christ has already broken. If you have been set free and feel yourself drifting back toward old chains, hear both truths here: you do not have to go back, and your security is not your fragile knowing of God but his sure knowing of you. Rest in being known.

Lord, thank you that even more than I know you, I am known by you, and your hold on me does not waver with my moods. Keep me from drifting back to the old bondage you have freed me from, and let me rest in being known by you.