| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | NET Bible |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls "Abba! Father!" |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless basic forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10You are observing religious days and months and seasons and years. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12I beg you, brothers and sisters, become like me, because I have become like you. You have done me no wrong! |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13But you know it was because of a physical illness that I first proclaimed the gospel to you, |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14and though my physical condition put you to the test, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself! |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Where then is your sense of happiness now? For I testify about you that if it were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me! |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17They court you eagerly, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18However, it is good to be sought eagerly for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19My children--I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you! |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, because I am perplexed about you. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23But 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. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24These 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. |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27For 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." |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30But 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. |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman. |
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