4:1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.
4:2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.
4:3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces* of the world. / *Or under the basic principles
4:4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
4:5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.* / *The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.
4:6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,* Father.” / *Aramaic for Father
4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
4:9 But now that you know God - or rather are known by God - how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces*? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? / *Or principles
4:10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
4:11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
4:12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.
4:13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you,
4:14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
4:15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
4:16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
4:17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.
4:18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.
4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
4:20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
4:23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
4:24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
4:25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
4:26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
4:27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”* / *Isaiah 54:1
4:28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.
4:29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
4:30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”* / *Gen. 21:10
4:31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.