1. Partner
Today we will engage with the Word with a partner.
2. Examen
Spend a minute quietly thinking over the question: “How do I typically deepen my experience of God?”
Share your thoughts with each other.
3. The Word
Pray this prayer together:
Father God the Vinedresser,
We ask You to examine us through the reading of Your Word,
to prune any unfruitful part of our lives.
Soften the soil of our hearts
And prepare it to produce Your fruit.
May we be receptive to the whispers of Your Holy Spirit
And the messages of the passage.
We want to deepen our experience of You.
Amen.
Read the passage together aloud, not rushing through but emphasizing each word.
Then read through the passage quietly by yourself 2-3 times.
4. Visual Commentary
Processing something visually can help you to understand it in new, deeper ways. At the end of your time, you’ll have a one-page visual diagram/picture of the passage. You might have to go through a couple iterations to get to something that makes sense, and that’s okay! The visual processing is part of you absorbing the text. These questions might help you organize the passage visually:
What are the images and metaphors in the text, and to what do they refer?
What are the connecting words in the text, and how do they tie the passage together? (however, therefore, because of, but, etc.)
What is being compared or contrasted?
What is the one big point of the passage, and how does the passage support it?
What are repeated words in the passage?
5. Bless
Lay your hands on the other person and pray a blessing over them based on what you’ve gained from today’s study.
6. Share
We will come together and share our visual commentaries with each other to learn from one another.
The Law and the Promise
15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[ ] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Children of God
23 Before the coming of this faith,[ ] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[ ] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[ ] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[ ] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 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 forces[ ]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
3:16 Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7
3:23 Or through the faithfulness of Jesus … 23 Before faith came
4:3 Or under the basic principles
4:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.
4:6 Aramaic for Father
4:9 Or principles
تبغى تتواصل مع مسيحي؟ تواصل معنا بكل امان الحين.
