Now I say,
That the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all;
02 But is under tutors and governors until the
time appointed of the father.
03 Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world:
04 But when the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law,
05 To redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons.
06 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father.
07 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a
son; and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ.
08 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did
service unto them which by nature are no gods.
09 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 labour 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?
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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.
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, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after
the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by
promise.
24 Which things are an allegory: for these are
the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai 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 an husband.
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,
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
freewoman.
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free.
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