And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted. (Galatians 4: 6-11)

The Galatian Church was mostly made up of Greek-speaking people who had once worshiped the Olympian gods.

It is likely that the Church also included many gentiles who had first been involved with a local Jewish synagogue.

Throughout the Jewish diaspora there were many "God-Fearers" who admired, supported, and participated in Jewish worship, but did not convert.

For these individuals the Olympian rituals were as much civic or family traditions as religious worship. The God of Moses was closer to fulfilling their spiritual needs.

We worship - give value and often equal value - to contending claims: our family, our employment, our hobbies, our church, our sports-teams, our nation, and more.

But Paul insists that there is only one whom we should truly value. We are to give ourselves to God through Christ.