Galatians 4
1 Now, I [will further] discuss [children and heirs]: [An heir is a person who will later] control all that his father has. But as long as that heir is a child, others [control] him, with the result that he is just like a slave [MET].
To proceed, as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is owner of all,
2 Until the [day that] his father [previously] determined, [other] persons supervise him and manage his father’s property.
but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.
3 Likewise, when we [(inc)] (OR, we [(exc) Jews]) were [like] young children [MET], we were controlled by the spiritual powers of this world. They controlled us like [masters control their slaves] [MET].
Similarly, when we were children we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4 But exactly at the time [MTY] [that God had previously determined], he sent [Jesus], who is (his Son/the man who is also God), into the world. Jesus was born to a [human] mother. He had to obey the laws [that God gave to Moses].
But at just the right time God sent out His Son, born of a woman, born under law,
5 God sent Jesus in order that he might redeem us who had to obey [God’s] laws. God wanted us all to receive from [God] the status of being his children [MET].
so that He might redeem those under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 Furthermore, we know that we are God’s children because God sent the Spirit, who is intimately related to Jesus, to live in our (inner beings/hearts). [The Spirit enables us to] pray fervently, “Daddy, Father!” [This shows that we are God’s children].
And because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, calling, “Abba, Father”.
7 So, [because of what God has done], no longer is [each of] you [like] a slave. Instead, [each of you is] a child [of God]. Furthermore, since [each of you is God’s] child, God has also made you his heir, [one who will receive all that he has promised].
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.
8 When you did not have a relationship with God [MET], you served gods that really did not exist [MET]. You were their slaves.
But at one time indeed, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those that by nature are not gods.
9 But now you have come to know God. Perhaps [it would be better to say that] now God knows you. [So now you are acting foolishly]! (You are again believing [that by obeying] rules and rites [you will benefit spiritually]! [RHQ] [Those rules are] ineffective and inadequate! You are wanting to [obey them] again [MET] like slaves obey their masters. [RHQ]
But now that you know God—better, are known by God—how can you turn back to those weak, yes decidedly inferior, basic principles, to which you wish to be enslaved all over again?
10 You [non-Jews] are carefully practicing [Jewish rules and rituals about what you should do] (on [Sabbaths/on Jewish days of rest]) and [on the first day of each] month and on [special] seasons and years.
You are observing days and months and seasons and years.
11 I (worry/am concerned) about your [mistaken ideas. I do not want] to have [so] strenuously served you in vain.
I fear for you, lest somehow I have labored over you in vain.
12 My fellow believers, I strongly urge you that you do as I do. [Stop thinking that you have to obey (Jewish rules and rituals/ceremonial laws]). [When I was with you], I [did not obey all the Jewish rules and rituals], just like you [did not obey them]. [At that time] you treated me entirely as you should have [LIT].
Brothers, I plead with you, become as I am, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.
13 You know that the first time I preached to you, [I went to your area to regain my health, because I was physically weak].
Rather, you know that I preached the Gospel to you the first time in spite of a physical infirmity.
14 [Although] you might have [despised me because] I was physically weak, you did not despise me or act contemptuously/disrespectfully toward me. Instead, you welcomed me like [you would welcome] an angel from God. [You welcomed me] like [you would welcome] Christ Jesus!
Also, you did not despise or recoil at my physical trial, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
15 (I am disappointed that you have forgotten [that then] you [declared that you were] pleased with [me]./Have you forgotten [that then] you [declared that you were] pleased with [me]?) [RHQ] I can testify that you [would have done anything to help me]. You would have gouged out your eyes [and] given them to me, [if that would have helped me]!
So what about your blessedness? Because I can testify that if it were possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
16 So I am very disappointed that you [now] act as though [RHQ] I have become hostile to you [because I have kept] speaking the true [message about Christ] to you.
Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17 Those [who are insisting on obeying Jewish rules] are eagerly [showing interest in] you, but [what they are doing is] not good. They even want you not to associate with [me and other true] believers, because they want you to eagerly show [interest in] them, [not in us].
They zealously court you—not for good but intending to isolate you, so that you may seek them.
18 But [just like] it always feels good to have others show that they appreciate you, [I would like you] always [to appreciate me], and not only when I am with you.
Now it is good to be zealous in a good thing at any time, and not only when I am present with you.
19 You [who are like] my children, [once] again I am very worried/concerned about you [MET], [and I will continue to] be worried/concerned until Christ’s [nature becomes developed] in you [completely and wholeheartedly] [MET] [as a child] becomes developed [in his mother’s womb].
My little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you
20 But I do wish that I could be with you now and that I might talk [more gently with you], because I do not know [what to do about] you [while we are apart].
—I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone; because I am perplexed about you!
21 Some of you desire [to obey all the laws] that God gave Moses. [I say that] you [should] consider [RHQ] [the implications of what Moses wrote in] the Scriptures.
Tell me, you who desire to be under law, do you not heed that law?
22 [He] wrote that Abraham became the father of two sons. His female slave, [Hagar], bore one son, and his [wife Sarah], who was not a slave, bore the other.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.
23 Also, [the sons differed. Ishmael], the [son born by] the female slave, was conceived naturally. But [Isaac], the [son born by] his wife who was not a slave, was conceived [miraculously] as a result of what [God] had promised [Abraham].
However, the one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was through the promise.
24 [I am telling you this] as an illustration. These [two women] symbolize two agreements. [God made] the first [agreement, which involved obeying the laws that God gave to Moses] at Sinai Mountain. [Because that agreement forces those who accept it to keep obeying all its rules] [MET], [it is like a slave mother who] gives birth to slaves. [So] Hagar, [the female slave, symbolizes] that [agreement].
I will now allegorize them—these are two covenants: one is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery, which is ‘Hagar’
25 Also, the [word] ‘Hagar’ is [associated with] Sinai Mountain, [which is] in Arabia [land. Hagar, the female slave, also] represents Jerusalem as it is today. Jerusalem is [like] [MET] a slave [mother, and those who live there] [PRS] [are like] her slave children [MET] [because they all must obey the laws that God gave to Moses].
(for this ‘Hagar’ is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present day Jerusalem, and is in slavery with her children);
26 But there will be a [new] Jerusalem in heaven [MTY], and we [who will go there] are free [from having to obey Jewish laws]. We [who belong to that city consider it to be] our mother [MET] [city because we are God’s true children].
while the ‘Jerusalem’ that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 [Our new city will have more people than those who live in Jerusalem now. It will be just like] Isaiah foretold about [the people whom he expected would come back to Jerusalem from exile. He expected that they would be more numerous than those who] were taken into exile. He wrote: [You who live in Jerusalem, you will] rejoice! Now you have no children, like a barren [woman] who does not give birth to [children! But some day you will] shout [joyfully], (without restraint/as loudly as you can), [even though now you are few in number, like a woman who] cannot give birth [to children, and you] feel deserted. [You will be very happy] because [you will have many children who will come to you. Those children will be] more than [the children] any woman with a husband [could have borne].
For it is written: “Rejoice, barren one, who does not give birth; break forth and shout, you who have no labor pains; because the abandoned woman has many more children than she who has the husband.”
28 Now, [my] fellow believers, you have become children [of God as a result of believing God’s] promise to us, as Isaac [was born as a result of Abraham believing what God promised to him] [MET].
Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 [Also, long ago Abraham’s son] Ishmael, the one who was conceived naturally, caused trouble for [Abraham’s son] Isaac, who [was conceived] supernaturally [MET]. Similarly, now [those who think that we must obey the laws that God gave Moses in order that God will save us are causing trouble for those who are trusting Abraham’s descendant, Christ].
But, it is the same now as it was then: the one born according to flesh persecutes the one born according to Spirit.
30 But these are [RHQ] the words in the Scriptures [PRS]: “The son of the [woman] who was not a slave will inherit [what his father has]. The female slave’s son will certainly not inherit those things. So send away from [this place] the female slave and her son [MET]!” [That means that you should certainly expel from your groups those who insist that we obey all the laws God gave Moses] [MET].
However, what does the Scripture say? “Expel the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman absolutely must not inherit with the son of the free woman!”
31 [My] fellow believers, [Hagar symbolizes the laws that God gave to Moses. But we are not those who must obey all the laws that God gave to Moses] [MET]. [So] we are not [the] female slave [Hagar’s spiritual] descendants [MET]. But [Sarah’s descendants are those who were born as a result of believing what God promised to Abraham. So we are] the [spiritual] descendants of [Sarah, the woman] who was not a slave [MET].
So then, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.
