Galatians 4

¹ What I am saying is this: as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, even though he owns the whole estate.

² He is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

³ So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental forces of the world.

⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

⁵ to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

⁶ And because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba! Father!"

⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a child; and if a child, then also an heir through God.

⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who by nature are not gods at all.

⁹ But now that you have come to know God—or rather to be known by God—how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again?

¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!

¹¹ I am afraid for you—that somehow I have labored over you in vain.

¹² I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

¹³ As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you,

¹⁴ and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

¹⁵ Where, then, is the joy you felt? For I can testify that, if you could have done it, you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me.

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

¹⁷ Those people are eager to win you over, but for no good reason. They want to shut you out, so that you will be eager for them.

¹⁸ It is good to be sought after for a good purpose, and to be so always—not only when I am with you.

¹⁹ My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you—

²⁰ how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am at a loss about you.

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law: are you not listening to the law?

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

²³ The son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise.

²⁴ These things are spoken as an allegory: the two women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery—this is Hagar.

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

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

²⁷ For it is written:
"Rejoice, you childless woman who never gave birth;
break out and shout, you who never knew labor pains;
for the children of the desolate woman are many—
more than those of her who has a husband."

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

²⁹ But just as at that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit, so it is now.

³⁰ But what does Scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."

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