4. Concern for the Galatians

¹But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; ²but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. ³So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: ⁴but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. ⁶And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ⁷So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. ⁸Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: ⁹but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? ¹⁰Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. ¹¹I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain. ¹²I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong: ¹³but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time: ¹⁴and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Where then is that gratulation of yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶So then am I become your enemy, by telling you the truth? ¹⁷They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you-- ²⁰but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone; for I am perplexed about you. ²¹Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? ²²For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. ²³Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. ²⁴Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. ²⁵Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. ²⁷For it is written,

Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not;

Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:

For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband.

²⁸Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. ³¹Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.