Galatians 4:18-31

4:18 However, it is good to be sought eagerly for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you. 4:19 My children – I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you! 4:20 I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, because I am perplexed about you.

An Appeal from Allegory

4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 4:23 But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise. 4:24 These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. 4:25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 4:27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children;

break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,

because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous

than those of the woman who has a husband.”

4:28 But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac. 4:29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. 4:30 But what does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” of the free woman. 4:31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.