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In a bad sense:
"There is neither bond nor free" (Gal. 3: 28).
"A child differeth nothing from a servant" (Gal. 4: 1).
"Wherefore thou art no more a servant" (Gal. 4: 7).
In a good sense:
"If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1: 19).
When we remember the words quoted above from the writings of Dr. John Taylor, and
remember also that Paul knew by actual living experience what the condition of a doulos
was in his own day, the full, complete, unreserved character of both his and of all true
Christian `service' begins to become apparent.
In like manner douleuo `to serve as a slave' is used in two ways in Galatians and
elsewhere.
In a bad sense:
"Ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods" (Gal. 4: 8).
"Ye desire again to be in bondage" (Gal. 4: 9).
"Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" (Gal. 4: 25).
In a good sense:
"For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to
the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Gal. 5: 13).
The way in which the Apostle leads the believer out from the `yoke of bondage'
through Christian liberty, on to the `yoke of love' is wonderful. The same word for yoke
is used in a good sense in the well known words of Matt. 11: 29, 30, "Take my yoke
upon you", as is used in the evil sense already quoted above. As the reader ponders these
two contrasted states `Bondage and Freedom' and meditates upon the passages which
contain them, he cannot help but attain to a fuller and richer realization of both the abject
nature of the slavery of sin, law and death, the absolutely devoted character of Christian
`service', the complete emancipation of the redeemed, and the true quality of this
freedom, `liberty' but not `license'.
Although our allotted space is about filled, we cannot refrain from one further note.
On the two occasions where the Apostle speaks of redemption in Galatians, he uses the
word exagorazo. The agora or as the Romans called it, the Forum, was both the place of
justice and the market place of the people. As for example:
"Children sitting in the markets" (Matt. 11: 16).
Agorazo, thus signifies `to buy' (Matt. 13: 44), and is used of the setting free of
slaves in I Cor. 6: 20 "Ye are bought with a price". Exagorazo, means to go into the
market place of this world and to pay the price that is necessary to purchase the freedom