Galatians 4:8-9

Galatians 4:8-9

[8] Howbeit  then,  when ye knew  not  God,  ye did service  unto them which by nature  no  gods.  [9] But  now,  after that ye have known  God,  or  rather  are known  of  God,  how  turn ye  again  to  the weak  and  beggarly  elements,  whereunto  ye desire  again  to be in bondage? 

What does Galatians 4:8-9 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Before conversion Paul"s readers (mainly Gentiles but some Jews) were slaves to religious traditions that, in the case of Gentiles, included counterfeit gods. Now at liberty they were in danger of turning back to the same slavery. They might return to a system that was weak (with no power to justify or sanctify), worthless (providing no inheritance), and elementary.
"To recognize oneself to be the centre of divine attention [1] is one of the profounder aspects of Christian conversion." [2]
"For all the basic differences between Judaism and paganism, both involved subjection to the same elemental forces. This is an astonishing statement for a former Pharisee to make; yet Paul makes it-not as an exaggeration in the heat of argument but as the deliberate expression of a carefully thought out position.
"The stoicheia to which the Galatians had been in bondage were the counterfeit gods of Galatians 4:8; the bondage to which they were now disposed to turn back was that of the law." [3]
"The demonic forces of legalism, then, both Jewish and Gentile, can be called "principalities and powers" or "elemental spirits of the world."" [4]
However these elemental things probably refer to all things in which people place their trust apart from the living God. [5] Both Jewish and Gentile converts had lived bound to worldly elemental forces until Christ released them. These forces include everything in which people place their trust apart from God: their gods to which they become slaves.