Galatians 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: They must first learn the import of external signs. They must learn language and letters. They must put together syllables and words. They must see thought through the medium of form, or learn to think of what is moral and spiritual by facts, parables, pictures, or such like appeals to the imagination and the senses. For a time words to the young mind are things — stories are facts. By and by the inward meaning of what has been learned comes to be understood. The outward ultimately falls off or loses its primary aspect and uses; and the man, with his fully developed and perfected faculties, is in immediate contact with the abstract and the spiritual. He then feels as if he apprehended it, and could reason about it, or at least meditate upon it, without the aid of words and signs. "When I was a child," etc. (1 Corinthians 12:11-13). Then I saw through a glass darkly — feeling after truth as reflected from a mirror, or presented in a parable; now I look upon it face to face. (T. Binney, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:WEB: So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. |
    |