1 I mean this: As long as the heir is under age he is not a whit better off than a slave, although he is heir of all the property,
2 but he is under guardians and trustees until the time fixed by the father.
3 So when we were spiritually under age, we were slaves to the world's crude notions,
4 but when the proper time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to law,
5 to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might be adopted as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba," that is, "Father."
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir by God's own act.
8 But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,
9 but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?
10 You are observing days, months, seasons, years.
11 I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.
12 I beg you, brothers, take my point of view, just as I took yours. You did me no injustice then.
13 And yet you know that it was because of an illness of mine that I preached the good news to you the first time,
14 but still you did not scorn the test my illness made of you, nor did you spurn me for it; on the contrary, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.
15 Where is your self-congratulation? For I can testify that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and have given them to me.
16 Have I then turned into an enemy to you, because I tell you the truth?
17 These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely. They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention.
18 Now it is a fine thing to have special attention paid you, if it is done sincerely and unceasingly, and not only when I am with you.
19 O my dear children, I am suffering a mother's birth pangs for you again, until Christ is formed in you.
20 I wish I could be with you right now and change the tone of my speech, for I do not know which way to turn in your case.
21 Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says?
22 For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave girl, the other by a free woman.
23 But the child of the slave girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born to fulfill the promise.
24 This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves;
25 that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia) and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one."
28 Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children born to fulfill the promise.
29 But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born by the power of the Spirit, so it is today.
30 But what does the Scripture say? "Drive off the slave girl and her son, for the slave girl's son shall never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."