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4:1  What I am saying · is that as long as the heir is a minor, he differs not at all from a slave, even though in fact he owns the entire estate.
4:2  However, he remains under the care of guardians and managers until the time determined by his father.
4:3  And so it is with us. While we were minors, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
4:4  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth · · his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
4:5  to redeem those who were under law, so that we might receive · adoption as sons.
4:6  And because you are sons, God sent · the Spirit of his Son into · our hearts, who cries out “Abba! · Father!”
4:7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, then you are an heir through God.
4:8  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who by nature are not gods.
4:9  But now that you have come to know God—or rather, are known by God—how can you turn back again to the feeble and inferior elementary principles of the world? How can you want to be their slaves all over again?
4:10  You scrupulously observe special days and months and seasons and years!
4:11  I am afraid that I may have labored over you to no avail.
4:12  Become as I am, because I have become as you are; I plead with you, brothers. You have done me no wrong.
4:13  You know · that it was due to a physical infirmity · that I preached the gospel to you at first;
4:14  and though my condition was a trial to you, · you did not despise or reject me, but you welcomed me as an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus.
4:15  What then became of the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify about you that, if possible, you would have torn out · your eyes and given them to me!
4:16  So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
4:17  They zealously seek your favor, but for no good purpose. Rather, they want to separate you from us so that you will seek them.
4:18  Now to be zealous for a good purpose is always good, · not just when I am present with you.
4:19  My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
4:20  I wish · I could be with you now and change · my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
4:21  Tell me, you who want to be under the law, will you not listen to the law?
4:22  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.
4:23  The son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born as the result of promise.
4:24  This may be interpreted allegorically, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to be slaves; she is Hagar.
4:25  · Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in · Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with · her children.
4:26  But the Jerusalem above is the free woman, and she is our mother.
4:27  For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren woman, you who bear no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in the pain of childbirth! For the children of the desolate will be more in number than those of the woman who has a husband.
4:28  But you, my brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
4:29  But just as at that time the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.
4:30  But what does the Scripture say? “Drive away the slave woman and · her son, for the son of the slave woman must not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.”
4:31  So then, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman but of the free woman.