But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? — Galatians 4:9
There are many fascinating stories about people that we can read who have changed their lives. There are many examples of people who were involved in crime at a young age but changed their lives in prison or through circumstances. I have often read of others who had a difficult childhood but used that experience to help mentor young people to avoid the same challenges.
Scripture is also filled with people who have changed from their past. One great example is that of the Apostle Paul, who persecuted Christians for so long, but then changed his life to do the work of Christ. There are many other examples where people have left lives of evil and sin and turned toward God and doing good.
But in just as many examples, there are those who, after coming to accept Jesus Christ, have turned back to their lives of sin. It’s usually not an immediate fall back into sin. Usually, those are trying to live a Christian life, but quickly learn the struggle of dealing with our sinful nature. While it should be a joy to be a Christian, no one ever said it was easy!
In his writing, Paul warned the Galatians about turning back to their past. He said that the people had been set free through Jesus Christ, yet they seemingly wanted to return to the bondage of their past. These people, as Paul saw it, were slaves to their past sins. They were serving sin rather than their Savior!
Everyone has a past and no one is exempt from sin. We have all experienced sin and the bondage that it can place us in. Instead of falling back into serving sin, we need to focus on serving the Savior. He paid the debt to set us free from our sins. Why should we want to go back into bondage?
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