Principalities and Powers #14

Posted by owner on May 11, 2010

The fourteenth in a series of studies of demons in Paul’s epistles.

What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God–or rather are known by God–how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
Galatians 4:1-9

Background

At first glance, you might wonder why I included this passage in a study of references in Paul’s letters to demons. The reason both for the confusion and for my choice is Paul’s use here of the Greek term, stoichcia. The term is used only four times in Paul’s letters, twice here and twice in Colossians, and has a wide range of meaning. In the first century stoichcia was used both to refer to spirit beings and to basic or foundational principles. Translators of our English versions do not agree on which use is intended here. Thus the
NIV takes it one way and translates stoichcia as “the basic principles of the world,” as does the NASB, which renders it “elementary principles of the world.” On the other hand, the RSV and the NEB take it as a reference to personal spirit beings, and translate stoichia “the elemental spirits of the universe,” while the TEV agrees and translates, “the ruling spirits of the universe.”

I believe there is a better case for understanding Paul’s reference to the stoichcia in a personal rather than impersonal way. And that the flow of Paul’s argument makes this meaning clear.

Galatians

The little book of Galatians is rightly viewed as a polemic against those who would rob the Gospel of Grace, first by insisting that works are necessary for salvation, and second by insisting that works provide the basis for the believer’s continuing access to God. Paul argues that human effort has nothing to do with salvation, and that human effort has nothing to do with spirituality. Both salvation and spirituality are rooted in personal relationship with Jesus Christ; a relationship that is possible only through a faith response to the divine Promise. To shift the focus of Christianity away from relationship distorts the Gospel itself, and cuts the believer off from the power that the Holy Spirit provides for holy living.

For Jewish Christians the problem was that they had grown up thinking of Law as the key to relationship with God. And they had taken commitment to keeping the Law in all its details as the measure of spirituality. Hellenistic Christians, who had grown up in a different religious tradition, had a different problem. Most of the non-Jewish Christians of the first century viewed spirituality in a dramatically different context. The spiritual person was sensitive to the spirit world, and showed due respect to the gods and goddesses by setting aside moments and days for ritual and worship.

In the present passage Paul speaks to believers from both traditions, and makes an argument that applies to both.

Observations

“as long as the heir is a child” In Roman law an underage child had no personal rights. In fact, it was normal for a Roman father to place the child under the supervision of a paidagog, who was himself a slave. Thus the situation of an underage child was that of a slave to a slave!

This, Paul argues was the condition of the Jew under the Law. But a non-Jew was a slave to demons, “to those who by nature are not gods.”

“God sent his Son, .. . . that we might receive the full rights of sons.” From the beginning God, who created human beings in his image and likeness, viewed us as his children. But we were errant children, who went astray. So God placed the Jews under the Law as paidagog, and the Jew became a slave to the Law. He permitted the rest of human kind to experience the consequences of their rebellion, and so mankind fell into the hands of Satan and his demons, who masqueraded as deities.

But now Christ has come, and both Jew and non-Jew are emancipated. In Christ both have been granted the full rights of sons. Now the Jew is freed from domination by the Law, and the non-Jew is freed from domination by demons. What Paul yearns for is that the new believers in Galatia might experience what it means to live as a son, in intimate personal relationship with the Father, relating directly to him.

“God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts . . . . So you are no longer a slave, but a son.” The Holy Spirit who has been given to believers is the living link between us and God. And the Spirit is a direct link. The Jew no longer needs to approach God through the Law. And the non-Jews no longer need attempt to approach God as he did before, through ritual observance.

In just a little Paul will develop this further, and show that the Holy Spirit is the key to a transformed life and true spirituality. “Walk in the Spirit,” Paul will exhort us, and he will describe the new life believers in Christ can experience. But in this present passage Paul is concerned with making a single point. The old ways in which these new Christians once approached salvation and spirituality are to be abandoned. Totally. Neither way succeeded in the past. And neither Law nor “religion” will work now.

“How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? For the non-Jew, turning back to worship organized around ritual and the observance of special days and seasons is tantamount to placing himself under the domination of the stoichcia who had enslaved them. Rather than a sign of spirituality, such observances are a pathway leading to further domination by demons.

Conclusion

In this Galatians passage Paul uses stoichia in a distinctly personal sense. The spirit beings, demons, who had masqueraded as deities, had imposed a false notion of spirituality on non-Jews. But as Christians, Jew and non-Jew alike are now in a relationship with God that is like the relationship of a child who has become an adult and has been acknowledged to be a son. That child is no longer a slave of slaves. He is free. And he has a direct, personal relationship God the Father.

The glorious message of Galatians is that we are sons. We are freed from our old slaveries and equipped to live as God’s heirs in this sinful world. Because of and through our personal relationship with God, the Holy Spirit will serve as God’s living voice to guide us. And he will empower us to live God’s kind of life in this world. No longer slaves, we are truly free.