September 08, 2025 | Be God's Family
It’s Time to Grow Up
Scripture: Galatians 4:1-7(NIV)
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.
Devotional
When are you “grown up?”
There are several milestones where we consider a person to no longer be a child:
Age 12-13: Confirmation, pay full price at the movies
Age 16: Get a driver’s license
Age 18: Legal adulthood for most purposes; voting, executing contracts, consent to medical care
Age 21: Purchase alcohol
Age 25: Insurance premiums go down
Most of these milestones are not as random as they seem; there are good logical reasons that the restrictions on children exist and are then lifted when appropriate. (Except for the movie ticket thing, that’s just greed).
In this passage, Paul looks at how the Jews lived while under the Law prior to the coming of Jesus. He compares them to children who were not yet “of age” to be responsible for their own affairs. The Old Testament referred to this in Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea Chapters 10 and 11 talk of how Israel has gone astray. It was acting like a wayward child.
God’s love for His people is as a father’s love for a child even if the child is unruly. Because the child needs direction, Paul argues that God sent the Law to act as a Guardian for His people. With the coming of Jesus, His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection, all of humanity is now of “legal age.” We have been freed from this guardianship and are now capable of a clearer understanding and mature love towards Christ displayed by our faith.
This was not the only time where Paul mentioned the faith journey as a passage from childhood to adulthood. One verse has been read at every wedding you’ve ever attended: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
1 Corinthians 13:11.
What this meant for early Christians was that they didn’t have to go back to being as children under the Law, as some of them were considering doing. But what does this mean for us? While we may be of “legal age” in the eyes of God, capable of receiving His Grace and salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus, we still need to ask ourselves: Are we showing that in adult Christian living?
Poem
Guardian And Father
Psalm 121
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. The LORD will guard you from all evil; he will guard your soul. The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.
Psalm 121:5-8
Guardian of my life
My provider
My protector
My deliverer
My defender
As I sleep
As I rise
As I move
Upon this sod
You are good
You are faithful
You are true
To me
Father of my life
My adopter
My life-giver
My true parent
My full wisdom
As I move
As I work
As I delight
As I eat
At Your table
You give all
Your bloodline
Your portion
To me
