What are elemental spirits?

στοιχεῖον, 'rudiments, first steps.'

Applied to children at the 'commencement' of their training; and to the law as the 'early' way of God's dealing with Israel; but now called 'beggarly' because it has lost its glory through the failure of man, and the introduction of Christ Himself. Gal. 4:3, 9. The word, with a similar meaning, is translated 'rudiments' in Col. 2:8, 20, and 'principles' in Heb. 5:12.

But not only did we lie under the curse of the law but the law itself held us in bondage. We were "in bondage under the elements of the world" (Gal. 4:3). Lower down in the chapter, Paul speaks of, "the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage" (Gal. 4:9). The word translated "elements" has the force of "principles," and is so translated in Hebrews 5:12. We may at first be inclined to wonder that such terms as these — almost contemptuous terms — should be applied to the law, which was given of God, but the "we" of Galatians 4:3, clearly indicates Jews, just as the "ye" of verse 6 indicates the Galatian Gentiles. Both were under bondage to the principles of the world. The law of Moses made no difference as to this. It brought in the demands of God, but they were to be met according to the principles of the world. The root principle of the law was that the favour which men were to receive from God was to be wholly determined by what they rendered to Him in obedience. This is altogether a principle of the world, whereas grace is not. There was no bringing in of principles which lie outside the world altogether, as is the case in Christianity.

V. 20. The first exhortations are based on the great truth that believers have died with Christ to the elements of the world. The immediate words of the Apostle, as well as the general tenor of the epistle, clearly indicate that "the elements of the world" are the religious ordinances invented by men or borrowed from Judaism.

Now, however much a believing Jew, before Christ had come, might have looked forward to His coming, and to inherit the promises through Him, he was as to his position like a minor, one not yet of full age, under guardians and stewards, and thus in bondage under the principles of the world. It is important to note how the Spirit of God designates Judaism now that the substance, of which its ordinances were but the shadows, had come; for in truth the observances under the law were enjoined on man in his present fallen condition. They could no longer point to Christ when Christ was come, nor could righteousness be found in them, for that is found in the One who had gone to the Father. Whether raising the question of righteousness, or pointing to Christ, these ordinances of a fleshly religion had been supplanted, and they remained a mere shell, which a natural fallen man could gratify his self-importance by observing, but they were but the elements of this present world wherein man is departed from God. They had been ordained of God for a time, and during that time for a purpose, as we read elsewhere, "Imposed until the time of setting things right" (Heb. 9:10, New Trans.) Then God sent forth His Son. Into the scene of death and ruin, wherein man universally was, God sent His Son - He came of a woman. To those that were under law, held in bondage there, even if as believers they had brighter hopes, God sent His Son, for He came under law. "We know," said the Jews, "that God spake to Moses," and they would use the divine commission of Moses to refuse the Son of God. But here is the great fact, that when the fulness of the time was come GOD SENT FORTH His SON. And why? Because He would have believers as sons before Him. Sonship could not be known until the Son of God came; but now that He has come, He has redeemed those who were under law in the state of tutelage and childhood, that they might henceforth be in the place of sons. Into this place they never entered, nor into the knowledge of the Father's counsels of glory concerning His own dear Son, while they still differed nothing from servants under law; nor can a believer now enjoy the relationship of a son if in the history of his soul he is still on Jewish ground. What a momentous change in the position of saints was made by God sending forth His Son!

So it has been for us, as the apostle indicates in verse 3, "we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world." The "we" here indicates the believer of Jewish stock; and the apostle speaks impersonally, as though there had been wrought out in the lifetime of one saint what actually transpired in a period covering many generations. Such, in their days of "childhood" under the law, were in bondage to the elements or principles of the world. It is worthy of note that according to this the principles on which the law was based were the principles of the world. This helps to explain why, in spite of the curse it pronounces, the law and the root principle of it, viz., all our blessing or otherwise depending upon what we can be and do for God, is so persistently clung to by sinful men. The law does not totally condemn and displace the world. It recognizes it, and assumes it may be of some worth by its very recognition.

As a nation of slaves, its philosophy and its science might have had but little attraction for them; but its heathen "ordinances," its principles or rudiments, and its gross lusts and gratifications, held their sway after they had been delivered, as their history records. But philosophy existed as a snare for the Colossians; viz., all that high intellectual culture, of which Greece and Rome were successionally the centre and the source. ordinances, the religiousness of the natural man, to which Judaism, as given by God, had been degraded, mingled as it was with forms of idolatry and Gnosticism. The rudiments or elements of the world - every subtle principle and motive that has its origin from the world, apart from God, involving all that goes to compose the spirit and character of the world, whether religious or irreligious; and, lastly, those gross lusts of which the apostle speaks, when he says, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth," etc. In a sense, all constituted the rudiments of the world; but it is important to note the special term which Paul employs in verse 20, as to the bearing of the believer's death with Christ toward the world. "Wherefore if ye be dead [have died] with Christ [not TO the world, but] from the rudiments of the world." There are many relations in which the believer necessarily stands towards the world, which affect the accuracy of the statement of his having died with Christ to the world, viz., corporeal needs, earthly duties and relationships, etc. What is said with divine accuracy to be true of him is, that he has "died with Christ* from the rudiments of the world"; maintaining again the separation character of Christ's death as bearing upon him. With equal accuracy the believer is instructed to reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin (Rom. 6:10), and to have become dead to the law by the (dead) body of Christ. (Rom. 7:4.) Divine terms are not only perfectly accurate, but perfectly essential to the clear apprehension of the divine mind in the word. The expression "dead to the world," so frequently used, is fully understood as not to mean absolutely done with the world; "for then must ye needs go out of the world." It is important to note that the term the Spirit of God uses, conveys the divine idea exactly, viz., "have died away from the rudiments of the world."

Yet these poor Christians now desired to return to the weak and beggarly elements from which, when heathens, they had been delivered, through the knowledge of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! Mark well that all their ceremonies are but the same thing as paganism, the elements of the world. Even if those who subject themselves to them be Christians, yet the principles according to which they walk are the elements of the world, and their practices are heathen practices. We learn this here as doctrine, but the history of the church shews it to us as a fact. Holy days and holy places were taken from the heathen, who had holy places and days on which they held festivals in honour of deified men, such as Theseus, Hercules, and others. The names of saints were afterwards attached to these places and days, and the saints celebrated instead of the demi-gods.

In those former days, says the Apostle, not knowing God, you were enslaved to the ones by nature not being gods. Now, on the other hand, having come to know God (rather indeed having become known by God), how, the Apostle indignantly asks, are you turning back again (to rest) on the weak and poverty-stricken principles, to which you are wishing to be again enslaved anew? These are most solemn words. In those former days they did not know God. They only served their dumb idols. They knew nothing better. The idols they served were not gods, and yet they were slaves to them. But now they have learned to know the true and living God, or rather, the true and living God knows them. Now they have tasted the liberty of His service. How can it be possible after this, the Apostle asks, that you should be turning back again? Please notice especially these words "turning back again." They had left their idols, and now they are turning to the law. No man would have written these words, "turning back again." But the Holy Spirit says that in God's sight, for the Galatians to turn aside from the simple good news they had received, unto the law, is just the same as "turning back again to the weak and poverty-stricken principles, to which you are wishing to be again enslaved anew." What were the weak and poverty-stricken principles to which they had been slaves before? These were their idols, and all the practices of heathenism. And now they were wishing to turn back again to be enslaved again anew. Notice those words again. They tell us that it is the same old slavery to which they wished to go as they had been under once before. The law is just as weak as the idols to save anybody; the one is as hopeless as the other. The one is as poverty-stricken as the other, there is no food for my soul either in the law or in heathenism. And yet you wish to put on again the chains of slavery from which the Lord had set you free! You are wishing to be a slave once more! And notice that little word "anew" at the end of the sentence. It tells us that it is the same old slavery to which they were going, but it is a new master. They had been slaves to those idols which are not gods; now they wish to be slaves of law. A slave may change masters, but he is still a slave. The slavery is the same though the masters may be different.

Page 401. But here he is all wrong still. He says: 'The heir, during the period of his childhood, because wanting the mind necessary to make the proper use of the inheritance, is placed under guardians and stewards, in a virtual position of servitude, till the time set by his father for his entering on the possession. Of quite a similar nature, the Apostle affirms, was the state of men in pre-Christian times: We too, says he, identifying himself with them, when we were children, were kept in bondage under the rudiments of the world.' It is neither 'the state of men,' nor 'entering into possession.' We have nothing of the inheritance but the earnest. And it is, in either case, heirs - believers; but the Jewish believer under law, and the Christian become a son. Judaism was altogether the rudiments of the world adapted to man alive here - the Decalogue itself even - but the whole system of days, sacrifices, ordinances, so that after the Cross, where the history of the first man was finished morally (at the end of the world) to return to them, when no longer figures, was to return to heathenism; Gal. 4:8-10. Chrysostom and Theodoret we may leave in the sun and the moon; he says they held the festivals were 'ruled by the course of the sun and moon.'

Before Christ came, God had appointed a system of ordinances. Judaism was the world's religion in its best shape. Those who were formed in that school, till they underwent a total revolution by grace, never understood the distinctive features of Christianity. Its character was hidden from them. The Jews had no notion of the flesh being utterly ruined — sense of sin, understanding of the grace of God, small indeed. As a nation they were put under law, under Levitical priesthood, under outward sacrifices, under carnal ordinances. All this was a part of what they had to go through, great truths being concealed under these rudimentary pictures. Christendom has taken up the things that were right enough for a Jew, but which are now called "the elements of the world," as in truth they are. They were not so judged when God was dealing with Israel. It was, however, what the world is capable of. Now they are treated as elements of the world, but it was not so before Christ died.

There are many, for instance, who think you cannot have fit worship for God without a sacred building and ceremonies in accordance; and the more beautiful the building, and imposing the ritual, the more they count it acceptable to God. Now all this is part of the elements of the world. Again, there are those who think you cannot have the Lord's supper without an official ordained for the purpose of administering it. There is no such custom in the Church of God. The Apostle repudiates the entire system. It is an invention of the enemy. New Testament Scripture, which reveals the Church, excludes all this. Not only is it not a good thing, but all such thoughts and ways are evil now, being opposed to the cross and the heavenly glory of Christ.