Shared Word Translation
Galatians 4
From Slavery to Heirship
I mean this: as long as an heir is a child, the heir differs in no way from a slave, though the heir is the owner of everything. Rather, the heir is under guardians and stewards until the date set by the father. So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental powers of the world.
The Sending of the Son and the Spirit
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent the Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Children and Heirs of God
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir through God.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God—or rather to be known by God—how can you turn back again to the weak and impoverished elemental powers, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
Become as I am, for I also have become as you are, brothers and sisters. You did me no wrong. You know that it was because of a weakness of the flesh that I proclaimed the good news to you the first time, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.
Where then is that blessing of yours? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
They are eager for you, but not for good; they want to shut you out, so that you may be eager for them. It is always good to be sought eagerly for a good purpose—and not only when I am present with you.
My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
The Example of Hagar and Sarah
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor;
for the children of the desolate one are more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
But what does the scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.