1 L et me say this another way. A young child who will get all the riches of his family is not different from a servant who is owned by the family. And yet the young child owns everything.

¶ Now I say That the heir, as long as he is a child differs in nothing from a slave, though he be lord of all,

2 W hile he is young, he is cared for by men his father trusts. These men tell the child what he can and cannot do. The child cannot do what he wants to do until he has become a certain age.

but is under the hand of tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

3 W e were as children also held by the Law. We obeyed the Law in our religious worship.

Even so we, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world,

4 B ut at the right time, God sent His Son. A woman gave birth to Him under the Law.

but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

5 T his all happened so He could buy with His blood and make free all those who were held by the Law. Then we might become the sons of God.

to redeem those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6 B ecause you are the sons of God, He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Spirit cries, “Father!”

And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father;

7 S o now you are no longer a servant who is owned by someone. You are a son. If you are a son, then you will receive what God has promised through Christ.

therefore, thou art no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

8 D uring the time when you did not know God, you worshiped false gods.

¶ However then, when ye did not know God, ye did service unto those who by nature are not gods.

9 B ut now that you know God, or should I say that you are known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak old Law? Why do you want to do those religious acts of worship that will keep you from being free? Why do you want to be held under the power of the Law again?

But now, having known God, or rather being known of God, how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, in which ye desire again to be in slavery?

10 Y ou do special things on certain days and months and years and times of the year.

Ye observe days and months and times and years.

11 I am afraid my work with you was wasted. Living by the Law or Being Free

I am afraid for you, lest I have bestowed labour upon you in vain.

12 I ask you, Christian brothers, stay free from the Law as I am. Even if I am a Jew, I became free from the Law, just as you who are not Jews. You did no wrong to me.

¶ Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are; ye have not injured me at all.

13 Y ou know I preached the Good News to you the first time because of my sickness.

Ye know how through weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

14 E ven though I was hard to look at because of my sickness, you did not turn away from me. You took me in as an angel from God. You took me in as you would have taken in Christ Jesus Himself.

And my affliction which was in my flesh ye did not despise, nor reject but ye received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

15 W hat has become of the happiness you once had? You would have taken out your own eyes if you could have and given them to me.

Where is then the blessedness ye spoke 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 D o you hate me because I have told you the truth?

Am I, therefore, become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

17 T hose false teachers are trying to turn your eyes toward them. They do not want you to follow my teaching. What they are doing is not good.

¶ They are zealous after you, but not for good; they would exclude you from us, that ye might be zealous after them.

18 I t is good when people help you if they do not hope to get something from it. They should help you all the time, not only when I am with you.

It is good to be always zealous to do good, and not only when I am present with you.

19 M y children, I am suffering birth pain for you again. I will suffer until Christ’s life is in your life.

¶ My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

20 I wish I could be with you now. I wish I could speak to you in a more gentle voice, but I am troubled about you.

I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.

21 L isten! If you want to be under the Law, why do you not listen to what it says?

¶ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, have ye not heard the law?

22 T he Holy Writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was born from a woman servant (Hagar) who was owned by someone. She had to do what she was told. The other son was born from a woman (Sarah) who was free to work and live as she desired.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 T he son born from the woman servant who was owned by someone was like any other birth. The son born from the free woman was different. That son had been promised by God.

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, but he of the freewoman was born through the promise.

24 T hink of it like this: These two women show God’s two ways of working with His people. The children born from Hagar are under the Law given on Mount Sinai. They will be servants who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do!

Which things are an allegory; for these women are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which begat unto slavery, which is Hagar.

25 H agar is known as Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is as Jerusalem is today, because she and her children are not free to do what they want to do.

For this Hagar or Sinai is a mount in Arabia, which corresponds to the one that is now Jerusalem, which together with her children is in slavery.

26 B ut the Jerusalem of heaven is the free woman, and she is our mother.

But the Jerusalem of above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 T he Holy Writings say, “Woman, be happy, you who have had no children. Cry for joy, you who have never had the pains of having a child, for you will have many children. Yes, you will have more children than the one who has a husband.”

For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth into praise and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.

28 C hristian brothers, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised.

So that we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29 A t that time the son born as other children are born made it hard for the son born by the Holy Spirit. It is the same way now.

But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

30 B ut what do the Holy Writings say? They say, “Put the woman servant who is owned by someone and her son out of your home. The son of that woman servant will never get any of the riches of the family. It will all be given to the son of the free woman.”

Nevertheless what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31 C hristian brothers, we are not children of the woman servant who was owned by someone (Hagar). We are children of the free woman (Sarah).

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.