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Galatians 4 (AMP)

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¹ NOW WHAT I mean is that as long as the inheritor (heir) is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave, although he is the master of all the estate; ² But he is under guardians and administrators or trustees until the date fixed by his father. ³ So we also, when we were minors, were kept like slaves under the elementary teachings of a system of external observations and regulations. ⁴ But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to the Law, ⁵ To purchase the freedom of (to ransom, to redeem, to atone for) those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us . ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father! ⁷ Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then an heir by the aid of God, through Christ. ⁸ But at that previous time, when you had not come to be acquainted with and understand and know the true God, you were in bondage to gods who by their very nature could not be gods at all . ⁹ Now, however, that you have come to be acquainted with and understand and know God, or rather to be understood and known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly and worthless elementary things , whose slaves you once more want to become? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I am alarmed , lest I have labored among and over you to no purpose and in vain. ¹² Brethren, I beg of you, become as I am , for I also have become as you are . You did me no wrong . ¹³ On the contrary, you know that it was on account of a bodily ailment that preached the Gospel to you the first time. ¹⁴ And although my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not regard it with contempt, or scorn and loathe and reject me; but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus ! ¹⁵ What has become of that blessed enjoyment and satisfaction and self-congratulation that once was yours ? For I bear you witness that you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me , if that were possible. ¹⁶ Have I then become your enemy by telling the truth to you and dealing sincerely with you? ¹⁷ These men are zealously trying to dazzle you , but their purpose is not honorable or worthy or for any good. What they want to do is to isolate you , so that they may win you over to their side and get you to court their favor. ¹⁸ It is always a fine thing to be zealously sought after for a good purpose and done by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you! ¹⁹ My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you, ²⁰ Would that I were with you now and could coax you vocally, for I am fearful and perplexed about you! ²¹ Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, will you listen to what the Law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free woman. ²³ But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise. ²⁴ Now all this is an allegory; these represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai and bears for slavery; this is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar is (stands for) Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to and belongs in the same category with the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage together with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above (the Messianic kingdom of Christ) is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written in the Scriptures, Rejoice, O barren woman, who has not given birth to children; break forth into a joyful shout, you who are not feeling birth pangs, for the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband. ²⁸ But we, brethren, are children like Isaac, born in virtue of promise. ²⁹ Yet as at that time the child born according to the flesh despised and persecuted him according to the Spirit, so it is now also. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? Cast out and send away the slave woman and her son, for never shall the son of the slave woman be heir and share the inheritance with the son of the free woman. ³¹ So, brethren, we are not children of a slave woman , but of the free .