NOW I affirm, that as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be master of all; (2)but is under
tutors and trustees until the time fixed by his father. (3)So we also,
when we were infants, were in bondage under the first elementary
principles of the world: (4)but when the fulness of time was come, God
sent forth his Son born of a woman, born under the law, (5)that he
might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons. (6)But because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father! (7)Therefore
thou art no more a slave, but a son, and if a son, an heir also of God
through Christ.
(8)But at that time when ye knew not God, ye served those who by nature
are not gods. (9)But now after having known God, or rather being known
of God, how turn ye back again to those weak and beggarly elements, to
which again a second time ye desire to be in bondage? (10)Ye observe
days, and months, and times, and years. (11)I am afraid for you, lest
haply I have bestowed on you labour in vain.
(12)Be as I am, for I also am as ye are, brethren--this is my request
to you: ye have not injured me in the least. (13)Ye know that with
infirmity of flesh I preached to you the gospel at the first. (14)And
my temptation, which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor rejected
with disgust; but as an angel of God ye received me, even as Christ
Jesus himself. (15)What then was your blessedness, for I bear witness
to you that, if it were possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes,
and given them to me. (16)Am I therefore become your enemy because I
tell you the truth?
(17)They affect zeal for you, not honourably; but they wish to exclude
us, that you may be zealously attached to them. (18)It is good indeed
to be zealously affected in a good cause always, 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 wish I could be with you now, and change my
address; for I am in doubt about you.
(21)Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the
law? (22)For it is written[113] that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondwoman, and the other by a free. (23)Now the son of the bond-maid
was born after the flesh, but that by the free woman was by promise.
(24)Which things are allegorical; for these are the two covenants, the
one from mount Sinai, gendering unto bondage, which is represented by
Agar. (25)For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds with
Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. (26)But the
Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (27)For it is
written, "Rejoice, thou barren who bearest not, cry out and shout for
joy, thou that travailest not, for more are the children of her that
was desolate, than of her which had an husband[114]." (28)So we,
brethren, as Isaac, are the children of the promise. (29)But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
Spirit, even so is it now. (30)But what saith the scripture? "Cast out
the bond-woman and her son for the son of the bond-maid shall in no
wise inherit with the son of the free woman[115]." (31)So then,
brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free.