1This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his; 2he is under guardians and trustees until the date fixed by his father. 3And so it was with us. During our minority we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe, 4but when the term was completed, God sent his own Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to purchase freedom for the subjects of the law, in order that we might attain the status of sons.
6To prove that you are sons. God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying 'Abba! Father!' 7You are therefore no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then also by God's own act an heir.
8Formerly, when you did not acknowledge God, you were the slaves of beings which in their nature are no gods. 9But now that you do acknowledge God?or rather, now that he has acknowledged you?how can you turn back to the mean and beggarly spirits of the elements? Why do you propose to enter their service all over again? 10You keep special days and months and seasons and years. 11You make me fear that all the pains I spent on you may prove to be labour lost.
12PUT YOURSELVES in my place, my brothers, I beg you, for I have put myself in yours. It is not that you did me any wrong. 13As you know, it was bodily illness that originally led to my bringing you the Gospel, 14and you resisted any temptation to show scorn or disgust at the state of my poor body; you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as you might have welcomed Christ Jesus himself. 15Have you forgotten how happy you thought yourselves in having me with you? I can say this for you: you would have torn out your very eyes, and given them to me, had that been possible! 16And have I now made myself your enemy by being honest with you?
17The persons I have referred to are envious of you, but not with an honest envy: what they really want is to bar the door to you so that you may come to envy them. 18It is always a fine thing to deserve an honest envy ?always, and not only when I am present with you, dear children. 19For my children you are, and I am in travail with you over again until you take the shape of Christ. 20I wish I could be with you now; then I could modify my tone; as it is, I am at my wits' end about you.
21TELL ME NOW, you who are so anxious to be under law, will you not listen to what the Law says? 22It is written there that Abraham had two sons, one by his slave and the other by his free-born wife. 23The slave-woman's son was born in the course of nature, the free woman's through God's promise. 24This is an allegory. The two women stand for two covenants. The one bearing children into slavery is the covenant that comes from Mount Sinai: that is Hagar. 25Sinai is a mountain in Arabia and it represents the Jerusalem of today, for she and her children are in slavery. 26But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman; she is our mother. 27 [ Is.54.1. ] For Scripture says, 'Rejoice, O barren woman who never bore child; break into a shout of joy, you who never knew a mother's pangs; for the deserted wife shall have more children than she who lives with the husband.'
28And you, my brothers, like Isaac, are children of God's promise. 29But just as in those days the natural-born son persecuted the spiritual son, so it is today. 30 [ Gn.21.10. ] But what does Scripture say? 'Drive out the slave-woman and her son, for the son of the slave shall not share the inheritance with the free woman's son.' 31You see, then, my brothers, we are no slave-woman's children; our mother is the free
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