Galatians 4:8

Plain English Version

At first you didn’t know God. Those other bad spirits were your bosses. Those spirits are not gods at all, but you couldn’t get free from them.

Cross References

John 1:10

The one called the Word came to the world. You know, God used that one called the Word to make everything in the world, but people in the world didn’t know who he was.

Acts 14:12

And those people reckoned Barnabas was their boss god called Zeus, and they reckoned Paul was their messenger god called Hermes, because Paul did all the talking.

Acts 17:23

I walked around this city, and I saw a lot of statues that you set up, to show respect to a lot of gods. And I saw a stone table that you set up, and you wrote on it, ‘This is for that god that we don’t know.’ Look, you don’t know that God, but you show respect to him anyway. Listen, I do know him, so now I want to tell you all about him. I’ll tell you about that God that you don’t know.

Romans 1:23

They didn’t respect the wonderful God that never dies, but instead they made models of things that do die. They made things that look like people, or birds, or animals, or snakes, or those sorts of things, and they respected those things. They didn’t respect God.

Romans 1:28

You see, they didn’t like to even think about God, so he let them think about lots of bad things, and they did all sorts of wrong things.

1 Corinthians 1:21

You see, God is properly wise. He knows that most people in this world want to be smart and think up their own ideas about God. But he blocks them, so they will never get to know him that way. Instead, God is happy to save everybody that believes his message. And we tell you that message, even though other people think we are stupid.

1 Corinthians 12:2

Remember this. Before you knew God, you listened to other people that didn’t know God, and you did what they did. You used to respect those statues that you thought were gods, but you know, they are just dumb statues, they can’t say anything.

1 Corinthians 8:4

All right, now I will answer your question about the food that people give to those statues that they think are gods. We Christians know that a statue is not really a god at all. We know that there is only the one God.

Galatians 4:3

Now I’ll tell you what that picture story is all about. We were like that little kid. We had bosses too. The bad spirits that are the bosses over this world, they were our bosses.

Ephesians 4:18

They can’t understand anything properly. It is like their minds are in darkness. They don’t want to know God, and they are a long way away from him. He doesn’t give them new life. They do bad things, but they never feel sorry about it.

1 Thessalonians 4:5

Don’t be like people that don’t know God. They just want to sleep with anybody and do the wrong thing with them. That is what they want to do, and they are always thinking about it. They don’t try to stop themselves. Don’t be like that.

2 Thessalonians 1:8

and with a lot of fire. They will punish all those people that don’t want to know God. Those people don’t listen to the good story about Jesus, and they don’t do what he says.

1 Peter 4:3

In the past you did lots of wrong things. You lived like people that didn’t know God. You just did whatever bad things you wanted to do. You slept with people that you were not married to, and you did with them what a husband and wife do together. You got drunk. You went to wild parties. You showed respect for statues that people made. That was really bad. But you don’t do those bad things now.