Galatians4

¹Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything,

²but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

³So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world.

⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

⁵so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.

⁶Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

⁷Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

⁸However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods.

⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again?

¹⁰You meticulously observe days and months and seasons and years.

¹¹I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

¹²I beg of you, brothers and sisters, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;

¹³but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time;

¹⁴and you did not despise that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, nor express contempt, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.

¹⁵Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I testify about you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

¹⁶So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷They eagerly seek you, not in a commendable way, but they want to shut you out so that you will seek them.

¹⁸But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable way, and not only when I am present with you.

¹⁹My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

²⁰but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone of voice, for I am at a loss about you!

²¹Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law?

²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.

²³But the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

²⁴This is speaking allegorically, for these women are two covenants: one coming from Mount Sinai giving birth to children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.

²⁵Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is enslaved with her children.

²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

²⁷For it is written: “Rejoice, infertile one, you who do not give birth; Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; For the children of the desolate one are more numerous Than those of the one who has a husband.”

²⁸And you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.

²⁹But as at that time the son who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so it is even now.

³⁰But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, For the son of the slave woman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”

³¹So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.