1 Now I say, That the heir , as long as he is a child , differeth nothing from a servant , though he be lord of all;
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father .
3 Even so we, when we were children , were in bondage under the elements of the world :
4 But when the fulness of the time was come , God sent forth his Son, made of a woman , made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons .
6 And because ye are sons , God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts , crying , Abba , Father .
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant , but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ .
8 Howbeit then , when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods .
9 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 ?
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 .