Galatians 4:8 (WEB)
However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.
Catechism · 1
The New Law is called a law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of grace to act, by means of faith and…
Fathers and councils · 9
Gregory of Nyssa
“Whether God exists without being by nature God, he who uses these words may perhaps know: but if it be true that he who is not by nature God is not God at all, let them learn from the great Paul that they who serve those who are not Gods do not serve God.”” — editor's note: The reference seems to be to Gal. iv. 8.
Read the whole comment“For men revolted from God, and “served them which by nature were no gods,” and though being the children of God became attached to an evil father falsely so called.” — editor's note: Cf. Gal. iv. 8
Read the whole comment“…had been thus outlawed by his own depravity, but instead of Him Who was by Nature God, those were honoured who, as the Apostle says, “by nature were no Gods,” and in the place of the Father, he was deemed father who is falsely so called, as the prophet Jeremiah says in his dark saying, “The partridge called, she…” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8.
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Irenaeus of Lyons
“For the former “serve the creature rather than the Creator,” and “those which are not gods,” notwithstanding that they ascribe the first place in Deity to that God who was the Maker of this universe.” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8.
Read the whole comment“And the Apostle Paul also, saying, “For though ye have served them which are no gods; ye now know God, or rather, are known of God,” has made a separation between those that were not [gods] and Him who is God.” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8, 9.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
“…the curse of the Law, then by degrees fashioning for ourselves things that were not, we served, as says the blessed Apostle, ‘them which by nature are no Gods,’ and, ignorant of the true God, we preferred things that were not to the truth; but afterwards, as the ancient people when oppressed in Egypt groaned, so,…” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8.
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Tertullian
“For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: “Remember the day of the sabbaths, to sanctify it: every servile work ye shall not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life.”” — editor's note: Comp. Gal. v. 1; iv. 8, 9.
Read the whole comment“…of the mundane elements, to turn them away from their god, although, when he said just before, “Howbeit, then, ye serve them which by nature are no gods,” he censured the error of that physical or natural superstition which holds the elements to be god; but at the God of those elements he aimed not in this…” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8.
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Ambrose of Milan
“For the Apostle called Him indeed true God, Who according to His nature was God, as it is written: “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, who by nature were not gods;” that is, who could not be true gods, for this title by no means belonged to them by nature.” — editor's note: Gal. iv. 8.
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Cross-references · 12
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Against Heresies II.9.
Cited together in Against Heresies II.9.
Cited together in Against Heresies II.9.
Cited together in Against Heresies II.9.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
Cited together in Against Heresies II.9.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.2.
