1Now this is what I mean. As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a servant, even though he owns everything.
2He is under guardians and stewards until the time his father has set.
3It is the same with us. When we were children, we were held in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5to buy back those who were under the law, so that we might be adopted as sons.
6And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father."
7So you are no longer a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8In the past, when you did not know God, you served things that by nature are not gods at all.
9But now you know God - or rather, God knows you. So how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless principles? Do you want to be their slaves all over again?
10You keep special days, and months, and seasons, and years.
11I am afraid for you. I fear that my hard work for you may have been wasted.
12Brothers and sisters, I beg you, become as I am, for I became as you are. You have done me no wrong.
13You know that it was because of a weakness of my body that I preached the gospel to you the first time.
14And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not look down on me or turn me away. Instead you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.
15Where then is the blessing you spoke of? I can testify that, if it had been possible, you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me.
16So have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17Those people are eager to win you over, but not for good. They want to shut you out, so that you will be eager for them.
18It is good to be eager for a good thing at all times, and not only when I am with you.
19My little children, I am in the pains of birth for you once again, until Christ is formed in you.
20I wish I could be with you now and change the tone of my voice, because I do not know what to make of you.
21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
22For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman.
23But the son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way of the flesh. The son of the free woman was born through the promise.
24These things are an allegory. These women are the two covenants. One comes from Mount Sinai and gives birth to children who are slaves. That is Agar.
25For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she matches the Jerusalem that now exists, for she is in slavery with her children.
26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is the mother of us all.
27For it is written, "Rejoice, you barren woman who bears no children; break out and cry aloud, you who have no birth pains. For the deserted woman has many more children than she who has a husband."
28Now we, brothers and sisters, are children of promise, as Isaac was.
29But just as then the son born in the way of the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit, so it is now.
30Yet what does the scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."
31So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.