NOW I say, That the
heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he
be lord of all;
2 But is
under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
3 Even so
we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
4 But when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew
not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
9 But now, after that ye have
known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and
beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and month,
and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I
have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
12 Brethren, I beseech you, be
as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have
not injured me at all.
13 Ye know how through
infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
14 And my temptation which was
in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus.
15 Where is then the
blessedness ye spake of? For I bear
you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own
eyes, and have given them to me.
16 Am I therefore become your
enemy, because I tell you the truth?
17 They zealously affect you,
but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.
18 But it is good to be
zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you.
19 My little children, of whom
I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
20 I desire to be present with
you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
21 Tell me, ye that desire to
be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22 For it is written, that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24 Which things are an
allegory: for these are the two
covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with
her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written, Rejoice,
thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest
not: for the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath an husband.
28 For as many of you as have
been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.
29 Now we, brethren as Isaac
was, are the children of promise.
30 Nevertheless what saith the
scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and
her son: for the son of the bondwoman
shall be heir with the son of the freewoman.
31 So then, brethren, we are
not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.