What if prayer, fasting, confession, and Holy Communion are not assignments from a strict schoolmaster but the ordinary practices of life in our Father’s house? Reflecting on Galatians 3:23–4:5, this homily invites us to see the Christian life as a journey from guardianship to sonship, from preparation to fulfillment, and from obedience to loving communion with God.
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Galatians 3:23-4:5
In today’s Epistle, Saint Paul says something that has puzzled Christians for centuries. He tells us that “before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law.” Then he says that “the Law was our tutor”—our guardian—”until Christ came.”
That naturally raises a question. If Christ had to come, then why did God give the Law in the first place? Was the Law a mistake? Did Christ come to replace what God had already done?
Not at all.
Saint John Chrysostom says Paul isn’t criticizing the Law. He’s defending it. The Law accomplished exactly what God intended it to accomplish. The problem wasn’t the Law. The problem was thinking that the Law was the destination instead of the journey.
Perhaps an example will help. Imagine someone saying, “Elementary school is useless because you can’t become a doctor unless you go to medical school.”
Well, of course you can’t. But that doesn’t make elementary school a failure. It was never meant to produce physicians. It was meant to teach you to read, to write, to count, to think, so that one day you could become something greater. You don’t despise elementary school because you’ve graduated from it. You honor it because it accomplished exactly what it was designed to do: it prepared you for something greater.
That is exactly what Saint Paul is saying.
The Law was God’s elementary school—or, as Paul says, the guardian who escorted His children until they were ready for Christ. It taught His people who He is. It taught them holiness. It taught them justice. It taught them mercy. It taught them that sin separates us from God. It taught them that sacrifice is necessary. It taught them to long for redemption.
Every commandment, every sacrifice, every feast, every priest, every prophet was preparing Israel for Christ.
The Law was never the destination. It was preparing God’s people for the One who is.
That’s why Paul calls it a guardian. The Greek word is paidagōgos. It doesn’t mean a classroom teacher. It refers to the trusted servant who escorted a child to school, watched over him, corrected him, and protected him until he became an adult.
The guardian had an important job. But no loving parent intended for the child to remain under the protection of the guardian forever. The goal was maturity.
That is exactly what God was doing with His people. The Law guarded Israel. It preserved them. It protected them from idolatry. It formed them into a people through whom the Messiah would come. And when Christ came, the time of preparation gave way to the time of fulfillment.
That is why Paul goes on to say something astonishing. He does not merely say that Christ forgives us. He says that “God sent forth His Son… so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Notice how much greater that is.
God’s purpose was never merely to produce well-behaved servants.
His purpose is to raise sons and daughters.
He doesn’t simply pardon sinners.
He adopts us as His children and welcomes us into His household.
That is why the Christian life is so much more than rule-keeping. Rules can regulate behavior, but they cannot create love. They can restrain evil, but they cannot heal the heart.
Only Christ can do that.
Through the Holy Spirit, He writes God’s Law upon the heart. Only the life of Christ dwelling within us can make us into the kind of people who naturally love what is good.
This is why Orthodoxy speaks so often about salvation – theosis – as a process and a way of life. God’s purpose is not simply to forgive sinners. His purpose is to unite us to Christ so completely that we begin to share His life. As Saint Athanasius famously said, “God became man so that man might become god”—not by nature, but by grace.
That is what Saint Paul is describing.
We are no longer merely subjects obeying a king.
We are children living in our Father’s house.
And that changes how we understand the Christian life.
Many people imagine Christianity as an endless list of religious obligations. Pray. Fast. Confess. Attend services. Receive Holy Communion. Read the Scriptures. Give alms. Sometimes it can even feel exhausting.
But what if we’ve misunderstood all of it?
What if these are not assignments given by a strict schoolmaster?
What if they are the ordinary practices by which children grow into the likeness of their Father?
A child becomes part of a family in a single moment. But learning to speak like the family, to think like the family, to love like the family, takes years.
So it is with us.
The moment we are united to Christ, we truly become God’s children. But growing into that reality is the work of a lifetime.
As we discussed last week, that is why we return to church week after week. Why we pray the same prayers. Why we fast. Why we confess. Why we receive the Holy Mysteries. Not because we are trying to earn God’s love, but because we already have it. These are the ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit forms us into the people God created us to be.
Again, little by little, almost without noticing it, our desires begin to change. The sins we once loved begin to lose their attraction. The virtues that once seemed difficult begin to bring joy. We become more patient, more merciful, more truthful, more generous—not simply because we are trying harder or following more rules [even Orthodox rules], but because Christ is living His life within us.
But this also comes with a warning.
It is possible to remain spiritually immature. It is possible to spend years in the Church and still prefer the security of the guardian to the intimacy of the Father’s house; to imagine that God is keeping score instead of raising a family; to measure our faith by checking boxes rather than by growing in love.
Saint Paul calls us beyond that. He calls us into maturity. Into sonship. Into freedom—not the freedom to do whatever we please, but the freedom to become what we were created to be.
And if we were to keep reading beyond today’s Epistle, Paul brings his argument to its beautiful conclusion. He says, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!'”
Abba.
That is the goal.
Not merely that we obey God.
Not merely that we fear God.
But that, in Christ, we know God as our Father, and by the Holy Spirit we begin to love Him with the very love of the Son Himself.
That is the fulfillment toward which the Law was always pointing.
That is the life into which Christ has brought us.
So let us not become discouraged if the road sometimes seems long or the growth seems slow. No child becomes an adult overnight. Formation takes time. God is patient, and He is faithful.
As Saint Paul says elsewhere, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, let us press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
For this is the good news of today’s Epistle.
The Law brought God’s people to Christ.
Christ brings us to the Father.
And the Holy Spirit patiently raises us into the mature sons and daughters we were created to become.
That is the Christian life—not merely obeying God’s commandments from the outside, but gradually becoming the kind of people in whom those commandments are fulfilled by the life of Christ Himself, until we can truly call upon God with confidence and joy, “Abba, Father.”
