Galatians 4

₁I will now use an example to explain something to you: When a person inherits something and he is still very young, it all belongs to him but he is like a slave. ₂He must do what the people who look after him tell him to do. When he is old enough, as old as his father said he must be to inherit, then he can decide what he wants to do with everything. ₃It was the same with us. We were also like young children. We were slaves to idols or slaves to the laws of Moses.

₄But when God decided that it was the right time, He sent his Son. His Son was a man like us and He had to do everything that the laws say. ₅We were slaves to the laws but God sent his Son to free us. That is how God has adopted us and He has made us his children. ₆Because we are God's children, God sent the Spirit of his Son, the Holy_Spirit, into our hearts and the Spirit speaks into our hearts and tells us that God is our Father. ₇So we are no longer slaves to the laws. We are now children of God and because we are children of God, God will give us what He has promised us.

₈Before you knew God, you served other gods, things that are not_really gods. ₉But now you know God. No, it is better to say that God knows you. That is why you must not go back and become slaves to the laws of Moses again, because the laws are worthless. ₁₀You celebrate all the feasts of the Jews, every special day and month and time. This is wrong. ₁₁That is why I am worried that all my hard work has not helped you at all.

₁₂Friends, I beg you to become like me because I became like you. You were good to me. ₁₃You know that I started preaching the Good_News to you because I was sick. ₁₄You suffered a lot because I was sick, but you did not hate me and you were not ashamed of me. You helped me and welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God or Christ Jesus. ₁₅You were so happy then that if you could have, you would have taken out your eyes to give them to me. Where is that happiness now? It is gone. ₁₆Do not think that I am your enemy now that I am telling you the truth.

₁₇Those people who want to change the Good_News want to take you away from the grace of God and from us, and they want you to do things for them. ₁₈It is good that you are working hard, if it is for something good. Do good things when I am with you and also when I am not with you. ₁₉You are like my children and you are making me suffer. I will suffer like this until Christ is the most important in your lives. ₂₀I wish I could be with you now. Then I would not have to talk in this way, because I do not know what to say to you now.

₂₁Those of you who want to be slaves to the laws of Moses, do you know what the laws say? ₂₂It is written in the Old_Testament that Abraham had 2 sons. One son's mother was the slave girl Hagar and the other son's mother was Sarah. She was not a slave. ₂₃The son of the slave girl, Hagar, was born like all other children. But the son of Sarah, Abraham's wife, who was not a slave, was born because God had promised it.

₂₄The story of these 2 women means a lot more. They are like 2 covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is like the covenant that the Lord made on Mount Sinai. This covenant makes people slaves to the laws. ₂₅Yes, Hagar is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and like Jerusalem here on earth because this Jerusalem and its people are slaves to the laws. ₂₆But we who believe are children of the Jerusalem in heaven and that Jerusalem is free, not a slave. ₂₇In the Old_Testament it is written:

₂₈Friends, Isaac was born because God made a promise. We also became children of God because God promised it. ₂₉The first son, who was born like all other children, made the other son suffer. The 2nd son was born after the Spirit of God had promised that he would be born. The same thing is happening to you in Galatia. ₃₀That is why you must do what is written in the Old_Testament:

₃₁Yes, friends, we are not children of a slave. We are children of the woman who is free.