Galatians 4.8-20

Every human has an intimate relationship with time. 

A few years ago, someone in this room today, was telling me about a lesson they were trying to teach their boys.  The lesson was that the one thing you need but can never get more of is time.  The example he used was his boys wasting their time with long showers.

To this very day, I can’t take a quiet, peaceful shower without thinking of the “big mistake” I am making.  Thanks, a lot!

The Oxford English Dictionary informs us that the word “time” is the most commonly used noun.

Researchers have found that the average person sleeps, or attempts to sleep, about nine hours a day. If the person lives to 80, he or she will sleep for 30 years. People who die at 80 will also have lived 700,000 hours, with 90,000 of those hours on the job.

What are we doing when we aren’t sleeping or working? 

In the US, the second-largest use of our time is … television. 

According to Nielsen, we spend four hours a day watching it. We’re not talking about YouTube, TikTok, Instagram reels, or Facebook stories.  Just plain TV. 

If you are watching live TV, nearly a quarter of that time is commercials. Multiply the numbers out over a lifetime, and you’re likely to spend well over two years of your life just watching commercials. And, the crazy thing is that TV isn’t even a majority of the media we consume. 

According to the same Nielsen study we spend 11 hours a day consuming media, which includes reading, listening, and watching.

The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote:

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.”

We live in a world with innumerable distractions from productivity.  

Where have you found yourself wasting time? 

Have you spent large amounts of your time paralyzed from getting things done because of worry and anxiety?

Have you found yourself thinking, “I can’t believe 2 hours went by,” after you stopped scrolling through social media?

Do you find yourself binge watching shows and movies now that almost everything is available immediately with the simple click of   button?

Have you felt guilty for sleeping and sleeping and sleeping until most of the usable portion of the day has passed?

Do you find yourself often incapacitated and slowed down and useless because of the amount of drinking or drugging you allowed yourself to partake in?

We all waste time even though we often feel the guilt of doing so afterward.

In this morning’s text, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches gathering in the region of Galatia during the first Century, Paul is questioning if he wasted his time with the Galatians because they seem to have forgotten everything he taught them about Jesus and Christ-like living.  Specifically, Paul sees the Galatians wasting their time with false beliefs like Jesus isn’t enough and wasting their time by going back to their sinful ways of living after having been forgiven and set free through God’s love and grace.

Let’s hear the Apostle Paul’s words of rebuke together now.

In Galatians 4:8–20, the Apostle Paul says this:

[8] Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. [9] But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? [10] You observe days and months and seasons and years! [11] I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

[12] Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. [13] You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, [14] and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. [15] What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. [16] Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? [17] They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. [18] It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, [19] my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! [20] I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. (ESV)

Paul begins this section of his letter by reminding the Galatian Christians of the dichotomy of who they used to be and who they are now.

Paul begins with the bad news of their former life without God’s love poured out on them in Jesus Christ.

Last week, from Galatians 4.1-7, we heard that before we were included in God’s family as a son or daughter through faith in Jesus, we were a son or daughter of Satan, the devil.  We were living in opposition to God’s standards for life and love by living and loving ourself more than anything else.

Paul returns to this theme of wasting time in sin by mentioning that before we found ourselves in believing in Jesus as both Lord and Savior, we were wasting our time as slaves to false gods.

Interestingly, this week, I saw yet another pathetic attempt by an atheist or, more likely, agnostic, to disprove the Bible by claiming they clearly see a contradiction within the words of Scripture. 

The uninformed and obviously Biblically illiterate challenger stated something like, “If the Bible says there is only one God, how come it also tells you to not put other gods before the One True God?”

What this disgruntled keyboard warrior didn’t do was their homework.  If they did their homework, they would have known that the Bible calls anything that we consider more important than the One True God, the Creator and Redeemer of humanity, a false god.  The Bible calls these things—things like money, power, sex, relationships, friendships, family—false gods.  They are labeled false gods because we are attributing to them the ability to sit over us and give us meaning, purpose, and a reason to exist, when in fact they have no living power to do such things.

Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians here is similar to the correction that he provides to the Christians in another city, the city of Ephesus.

In his letter, to the Ephesian Christians, Paul says this:

[20] But that is not the way you learned Christ!—[21] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20–24, ESV)

After reminding them of who they used to be, Paul reminds them of who they are now because of Jesus.  They are known by God the Father in Heaven and in turn know God the Father in Heaven as their are officially His eternal sons and daughters.

But, the problem is this.  Even as eternal sons and daughters of God, they are still struggling with believing the truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  They are also struggling with acting as good representatives of God the Father in Heaven.  

Paul sees the Galatian Christians wasting their time with lies that lead them away from the rest and peace that Jesus died to give them.  Paul also sees the Galatian Christians wasting their time by returning to a life of loving themselves and forsaking God and the people around them that need to know the love of God for themselves.

Because of their struggle to firmly believe in the truth that faith alone through God’s grace also forgives and saves, as well as their struggle with doing the right and Godly things all of the time, the Apostle Paul fears that his time working with them was a waste of his time.

Was Paul wasting his time?

Absolutely not.

How do we know that Paul wasn’t wasting his time preaching and teaching the Gospel, also known as the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Well, the same way we know everything else that is important.  The Scripture tells us.

First, Paul confessed in the book of Romans that he too struggles with sin even after being saved by God through faith in Christ.

In the book of Romans, also found in the New Testament part of the Bible, Paul says that he struggles everyday with knowing what is right but doing what is wrong.  That is why he comes to the conclusion of praise to Jesus who forgives because with Jesus there is now no condemnation and damnation for the sinner.

So, Paul is thankful for the Bible and for Bible preachers and teachers who remind him of his salvation and his responsibility afterwards to walk and live in a manner worthy of Christ striving after Godly thoughts, words, and actions with the help of the promised and given Holy Spirit.

Second, as Isaiah 55:10–11 says:

[10] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

[11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (ESV)

And, as John 12:32 has Jesus saying:

[32] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (ESV)

When I was being trained in the church for pastoral ministry, I would meet in the church office in Staten Island with my then mentor and pastor, the church’s worship leader, and any elder that was in attendance that morning.  My mentor/pastor, would pray every Sunday and ask Jesus to draw men and women to himself as Jesus was lifted up through His Word during the service.  My pastor/mentor was praying for what Jesus promises to do as found in John 12.32.

The Apostle Paul was not wasting his time preaching to and teaching the Galatians from God’s Word, the Bible, because it is living and active and when Jesus is exalted as the only one who forgives sin and gives righteousness, He is always at work drawing men and women to Himself for rest, and peace, and hope in what He has accomplished for them in His life, death, and resurrection.

After lamenting the time he wasted away from family and everyday life while endlessly touring with his band Iron Maiden,

Adrian Smith penned what has become one of the band’s biggest hits throughout their 50 year career.

In “Wasted Years”, Smith says:

So understand

Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years

Face up, make your stand

Realize you’re living in the golden years

It is here that Smith urges us to not waste more time worrying about the time that we wasted.  Realize that you have the gift of today and can make different and better choices.

The same is true for you this morning.  Jesus’ death on the cross has provided you the forgiveness from God that you needed for misusing and wasting some of the limited time that God has given you on this earth.  You don’t have to waste more time worrying about the time you wasted disobeying God both before faith and even going backward into sin after faith, like the Galatians were.  

Through faith in Jesus, your Sin, that wasted your time on this earth by stealing time you could have been joyfully loving God and loving others, has been removed from your record and will never see the light of day ever again.  That is God’s grace working for you because of God’s love for you.

Psalm 118:17–24 says:

[17] I shall not die, but I shall live,

and recount the deeds of the LORD.

[18] The LORD has disciplined me severely,

but he has not given me over to death.

[19] Open to me the gates of righteousness,

that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the LORD.

[20] This is the gate of the LORD;

the righteous shall enter through it.

[21] I thank you that you have answered me

and have become my salvation.

[22] The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

[23] This is the LORD’s doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes.

[24] This is the day that the LORD has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it. (ESV)

Like God’s ambassador, the Apostle Paul, did with the Galatians, God has also done with us.  He has shown us our sin and corrected us.  He has answered our confession of sin with forgiveness.  God as provided salvation for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

So, let’s live today in the day that the Lord has made and given to us by rejoicing and walking in a manner worthy of Christ, choosing the best part of every hour.

I am going to rewrite the quote from Seneca, the Roman Philosopher, that heard at the beginning, to fit the truth of today’s Scripture.

Even though we have a short time to live, we waste a lot of it. A sufficiently generous amount of time has been given to us for the highest achievements (of loving God and loving others) if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.

Without Jesus and His Word, you are always wasting your time living apart from God going the wrong way down a one-way road hitting everything in sight.

However, with Jesus and His Word, you are making the best of every hour being led to repentance and faithful living through the correction and guidance of God the Father in Heaven.

With faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are living in the golden years!  

With faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are living in the time when God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s mercy are being poured out upon you every second of every day. 

This morning, repent of your Sin and believe in Jesus, God’s Savior.  Then, go out into the world and live in a manner worthy of Jesus so that others are drawn to the love of God in Christ that brought you peace and can also bring them peace.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 1, 2025.