Galatians 4
|
1 |
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 fulness 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. Rom.
8.15-17
|
Warning against
Returning to Bondage |
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 months, and times,
and years.
|
11 |
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed
upon you labor 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.
|
The Allegory of Hagar
and Sarah |
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, Gen. 16.15 the other by a free woman. Gen. 21.2
|
23 |
But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by
promise.
|
24 |
Which things are an allegory: for these
are the two covenants; the one from the mount Si'nai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar.
|
25 |
For this Hagar is Mount Si'nai 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 a husband. Is.
54.1 |
|
|
28 |
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise.
|
29 |
But as then he that was born after the
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, Gen.
21.9 even so it is now.
|
30 |
Nevertheless what saith the
Scripture?
|
Cast out the bondwoman and her son: |
for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir |
with the son of the free woman. Gen.
21.10 |
|
|
31 |
So then, brethren, we are not children of
the bondwoman, but of the free.
|