Verses 1-7
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At exactly the right time, Christ—the Son of God—came into the world as a human, so that He could save humans.
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Jesus had to be a Man in order for Him to be qualified to redeem man (Hebrews 2:14-18).
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Because of Him, we have been adopted into a Father-son relationship with God.
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Verse 3. “The elements of the world”—see teaching on Colossians 2 for commentary on this.
Verses 8-11
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Before Christ, we served our sins and idols—false gods and/or earthly things—as slaves.
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But after Christ, after having been set free, if we start following a legalistic way imposed on us by men, we are only serving earthly things again. It appears spiritual, because it's in a religious package, but it's a regression and only brings us back into enslavement.
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Remember that legalism makes the appearance of greater spirituality, but it is actually of the world, and will only weaken you (Colossians 2:20-23).
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Only follow the Word, not commandments imposed on you by legalistic people(Colossians 2:22).
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Also, beware of those who try to bring you back under the law of Moses, teaching that you must keep the ordinances. This is a dangerous regression (Acts 15:10,24-29, Galatians 2:4-5, 5:1)!
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Verses 12-16
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Believers should love each other, like Paul loved the Galatians and like they loved him. But we must also remember that it is still love to speak the truth (Ephesians 4:15, 1 Corinthians 13:6).
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Don't be offended or hurt when someone tells you something you need to hear. Receive the truth, and love those to speak it to you, no matter how hard to hear.
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Verses 17-18
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Although it is good for believers to be zealous for what is good, zeal for a bad thing is bad.
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False teachers can lure you in through their zeal or passion. Don't be fooled by appearances of zeal of spirituality, as false teaching is only meant to separate you from Christ and the true church.
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Listen to those who speak the truth; don't follow zeal or emotion.
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Verses 19-20
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Helping believers to grow is meant to be like laboring for the birth of a child. It will be hard and painful sometimes.
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Know also that change one's tone, to be more sharp with a person, or more gentle, is needful for different reasons.
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“Change your tone” with a person to make it appropriate for the severity of the problem that you are dealing with.
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For the Galatians, their situation was serious, having drifted away into a dangerous false doctrine. So Paul wrote to them sharply, even calling them “foolish” (Galatians 3:1).
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Verses 21-31
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Isaac represents the faith we have in Christ, and Ishmael represents the bondage of legalism. Just like Ishmael persecuted Isaac (Genesis 21:9), legalistic people like to criticize or persecute people who walk by faith in Christ.
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To an extreme level, the Jews persecuted the Christians in Paul's day, even to killing them (Acts 14:2-5,19).
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Isaac was born through the promise and miraculous power of God and Abraham's faith (Romans 4:19-22), whereas Ishmael was born through Abraham's own efforts, doubting God's promise (Genesis 16:1-4).
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If we are to have the faith of Abraham and Isaac, this means that we must not live trying to earn God's blessing through our own efforts.
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Instead, keep your trust in Christ, and know that with Christ you already have all of God's blessing (Ephesians 1:3, Romans 8:32).
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Since we are free, in Christ, from the law, we ought to stay free. The solution is to “cast out the bondwoman”. In other words, stay away from people who spread false or legalistic doctrine.
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Hearing this misinformation will weaken your faith.
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