Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 4:8

"Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods:" — Galatians 4:8 (ASV)

Howbeit. But, alla. The address in this verse and the following is evidently to the portion of the Galatians who had been heathen. This is probably indicated by the particle alla, but, denoting a transition. In the previous verses, Paul had evidently focused more particularly on the Jewish converts, and had described their former condition as one of servitude to the Mosaic rites and customs, and had shown the inconveniences of that condition, compared with the freedom imparted by the gospel.

To complete the description, he also refers to the Gentiles, whose condition was one of even worse servitude. He shows (Galatians 4:9) the absurdity of their turning back to a state of bondage of any kind after the glorious deliverance they had obtained from the degrading servitude of pagan rites.

The sense is, "If the Jews were in such a state of servitude, how much more galling and severe was that of those who had been heathen. Yet from that servitude the gospel had delivered them and made them free. How absurd now to go back to a state of vassalage and to become servants under the oppressive rites of the Jewish law!"

When you knew not God. In your state of heathenism, you had no knowledge of the true God and of His service. The object is not to apologize for what you did because you did not know God; it is to state the fact that you were in a state of gross and galling servitude.

You did service. This does not express the force of the original. The meaning is, "You were slaves (edouleusate); you were in a condition of servitude, as opposed to the freedom of the gospel." Compare Galatians 4:3, where the same word is used to describe the state of the Jews. The apostle's aim is to show that both Jews and Gentiles, before their conversion to Christianity, were in a state of vassalage or servitude, and that it was absurd in the highest degree to return to that condition again.

Unto them which by nature are no gods. This refers to idols, or false gods. The expression "by nature," fusei, according to Grotius, means in fact, re ipsa. The sense is that they really had no pretensions to divinity.

Many of them were imaginary beings; many were objects of creation, such as the sun, winds, and streams; and many were departed heroes who had been exalted to be objects of worship.

Yet the servitude was real. It fettered their faculties, controlled their powers, bound their imagination, commanded their time and property, and made them slaves.

Idolatry is always slavery; and the servitude of sinners to their passions and appetites, to lust, and gold, and ambition, is no less galling and severe than was the servitude to the pagan gods or the Jewish rites, or than was the servitude of an African slave in former times to a harsh and cruel master.

Of all Christians it may be said that before their conversion they did service, or were slaves to harsh and cruel masters; and nothing but the gospel has made them free. It may be added that the chains of idolatry all over the world are as firmly riveted and as galling as they were in Galatia, and that nothing but the same gospel which Paul preached there can break those chains and restore people to freedom.