Galatians 4
1Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had.
2They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set.
3And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles
4But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.
5God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist.
9So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?
10You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years.
11I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.
12Dear brothers and sisters,
17Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them. 18If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.
19Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. 20I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone. But at this distance I don’t know how else to help you.
Abraham’s Two Children
21Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says?
22The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife.
24These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them.
25And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia,
28And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. 29But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.
30But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”