Galatians 4:8

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

Galatians 4:8

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

When

Ye did

Bible References

When

He came into the world, and though the world came into existence through him, the world did not recognize him.

For as I was going about and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To an Unknown God.' So it is what you already worship in ignorance that I am now telling you of.

And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct.

For since in God's providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him.

So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands.

They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart,

not to gratify his passion, like the heathen who know nothing of God.

in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus.

Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are??ecause it has never come to know him.

Ye did

They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul, because he was the principal speaker, Hermes.

So if we are God's children we ought not to imagine that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, wrought by human art and thought.

and for the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles.

As to eating things, then, that have been offered to idols, we all know that no idol has any real existence, and that there is no God but one.

What am I saying then? That there is any such thing as being offered to an idol, or any such thing as an idol?

You know that when you were heathen you would stray off, as impulse directed, to idols that could not speak.

For when people speak of us, they tell what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to God, to serve a true and living God,

You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry.