Earning Favor with God by Observing Biblical Holidays? (Galatians 4:10 Meaning)

In this post we will explore Galatians 4:10, and the passage about becoming enslaved by observing certain holidays or special times. We will see that this is not about celebrating God's Biblical holidays or set apart times, and learn the truth behind this passage of Scripture.

"You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years." -Galatians 4:10

Many people believe this to be about Biblical holidays like Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles, and will tell others that taking part in God's holidays will somehow lead them away from freedom or that their intentions for doing so are actually motivated by fear that they have to somehow impress God in order to be accepted by him. At first glance, it's easy to make the assumption that this is what Paul is getting at.

But if we back up, we can see that the context here is not about keeping the Biblical holidays. Take a look at the verses just prior to this statement.

"Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God, why would you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?" -Galatians 4:8-9

Trying to earn favor was something people did with the gods of the Roman Empire. We see this throughout Roman and other types of mythology. The gods would be angry if certain things weren't done, and in order to have a good life you had to constantly appease them, or else they would punish you.

Galatians 4:8-9 tells us that verse 10 is not about trying to earn favor with the Living God. This is about returning to spiritual practices from before these people knew the Living God.

This fits with what we about legal issues of worship in the ancient Roman Empire. Most citizens were legally required to worship certain gods. This is because it was believed that the Roman gods and more localized deities would be angry if certain rituals, sacrifices, and festivals were not done to honor them. Citizens were expected to do their part to appease these gods, and it was believed that blessings like bountiful harvests, good weather conditions, and military success had to be earned from these gods. The favor of Rome's gods had to be earned.

Paul is warning believers against returning to these practices, otherwise they become "enslaved again"...something there would be no precedent for from YHWH, since the group Paul is addressing is new to the faith. They had been enslaved before to "so-called gods," but certainly not to the Living God. The slavery in question wasn't about physical chattel slavery. It was about spiritual slavery.

You see, when mankind sins the problem is not just that we aren't perfect in God's sight. Sin indicates that we have worshiped something in place of YHWH. And that means that we have given the power and authority that God has given us to other spiritual forces. These forces then run rampant. Human lives and the natural order and beauty of Creation are destroyed. And those are the powers that we risk becoming enslaved to if we return to ungodly customs.

This passage is not warning us that keeping God's law or celebrating his holidays would somehow enslave us to negative things. What Paul is speaking of here is returning to the Roman tradition of serving local gods in order to benefit from them. Scripture does not warn against celebrating God's work during the Biblical holidays. This is about not returning to the cultural holidays that a corrupt empire wanted its citizens taking part in.

Scripture tells us repeatedly that we are to take part in holidays like the Feast of Trumpets, and Shavuot in order to remember the things that God did for his people. Taking part in Scripture's holy days was never about "earning favor," with YHWH. The holidays were always about marking the year in order for God's people to learn of the miracles he did and to remember the story of how he redeemed them. Passover, for example, was never because God was angry and he wanted people to jump through hoops, it was always to fill people up with hope when they looked back on how he delivered Israel from slavery.

The biblical holidays are about celebrating that God delivered us from slavery...taking part in them is not what what returns us to slavery. Does it make more sense that we would be enslaved by celebrating God's provision during the holidays he created or that we would be enslaved by the holidays of our culture? The slavery that Galatians 4:10 is talking about comes from turning to things other than YHWH. 

How we know Galatians 4:10 is not about biblical holidays:

-The verses immediately prior speak of returning to customs the people participated in before knowing YHWH.

-The biblical holidays were never about appeasing or earning favor with God, according to Scripture.

-Historical evidence demonstrates that Roman deities did expect favor to be earned.

-Scriptural holidays are actually about remembering God leading his people to freedom! 

Related posts:

Why Everyone Should Celebrate Scripture's Holidays
Understanding the Shadow of Things to Come in Colossians 2:16-17
The Beginner's Guide to the Biblical Holidays