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].
But I say, that the heir, so long as he is a child, differeth not from a servant, although he is lord of all;
2 Until the [day that] his father [previously] determined, [other] persons supervise him and manage his father’s property.
but he is under supervisors and stewards, until the time established by his 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].
So also we, while we were children, were in subordination under the elements 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 when the consummation of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son; and he was from a woman, and was under the 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].
that he might redeem them that were under the law; and that we might receive the adoption of 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 ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, who crieth, Father, our 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].
Wherefore, ye are no longer servants, but sons; and if sons, then heirs of God; through Jesus the Messiah.
8 When you did not have a relationship with God [MET], you served gods that really did not exist [MET]. You were their slaves.
For then, when ye knew not God, ye served them who in their 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, since ye have known God, or rather, have been known by God, ye turn yourselves again to the weak and beggarly elements, and wish again to be under them!
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.
Ye observe days and moons, and set times, and years!
11 I (worry/am concerned) about your [mistaken ideas. I do not want] to have [so] strenuously served you in vain.
I am afraid, lest I have labored among 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].
Be ye like me; because I have been like you.
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].
My brethren, I beseech you. Ye have not injured me at all. For ye know, that under the infirmity of my flesh, I at first announced the gospel to you;
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!
and the trial in my flesh, ye did not despise nor nauseate: but ye received me as an angel of God, and as Jesus the Messiah.
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]!
Where then is your blessedness? For I testify of you, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes, and have 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 become an enemy to you, by preaching to 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 are zealous towards you, yet not for good; but they wish to shut you up, that ye may be zealous towards 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.
And it is a good thing to be zealous at all times in good things; and not merely 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].
Ye are my children, of whom I travail in birth again, till the Messiah be 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].
And I could wish to be now with you, and to change the tone of my voice; because I am astonished at 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, ye who desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the 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 bondmaid, 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].
But he that was by the bond maid, was born after the flesh; and he that was by the free woman, was by 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].
And these are allegorical of the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which bringeth forth for bondage, 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 Hagar is the mount Sinai in Arabia, and correspondeth with the present Jerusalem, and is serving in bondage, she and 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].
But the Jerusalem above, is the free woman, who is the mother of us.
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, Be joyful, thou barren, who bearest not: exult and shout, thou who hast not travailed: for more numerous are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman.
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, my brethren, like Isaac, are the children of the 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].
And as then, he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him who was born of the Spirit; so also is it now.
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].
But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondmaid, and her son; because the son of the bondmaid shall 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, my brethren, we are not sons of the bond-woman, but sons of the free woman.
