But then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
All Commentaries on Galatians 4:8 Go To Galatians 4
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Here turning to the Gentile believers he says that it is an idolatry, this rigid observance of days, and now incurs a severe punishment. To enforce this, and inspire them with a deeper anxiety, he calls the elements not by nature Gods. And his meaning is—Then indeed, as being benighted and bewildered, you lay grovelling upon the earth, but now that you have known God or rather are known of Him, how great and bitter will be the chastisement you draw upon you, if, after such a treatment, you relapse into the same disease. It was not by your own pains that you found out God, but while you continued in error, He drew you to Himself. He says weak and beggarly rudiments, in that they avail nothing towards the good things held out to us.
