4:1 Now I say, [That] the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all;
4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed
by the father.
4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the
elements of the world:
4:4 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons.
4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a
son, then an heir of God through Christ.
4:8 However then, when ye knew not God, ye did service to them
which by nature are no gods.
4:9 But now, after ye have known God, or rather are known by
God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, to
which ye desire again to be in bondage?
4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in
vain.
4:12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I [am] as ye
[are]: ye have not injured me at all.
4:13 Ye know that in infirmity of the flesh I preached the
gospel to you at the first.
4:14 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.
4:15 What then was the blessedness ye spoke of; for I bear you
testimony, that, if [it had been] possible, ye would have
plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the
truth?
4:17 They zealously affect you, [but] not well; for, they would
exclude you, that ye may affect them.
4:18 But [it is] good to be zealously affected always in [a]
good [thing], and not only when I am present with you.
4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until
Christ be formed in you,
4:20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my
voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear
the law?
4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a
bond-maid, the other by a free-woman.
4:23 But he [who was] of the bond-woman, was born according to
the flesh; but he of the free-woman [was] by promise.
4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two
covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to
bondage, which is Agar.
4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother
of us all.
4:27 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 who hath a husband.
4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise.
4:29 But as then he that was born according to the flesh
persecuted him [that was born] according to the Spirit, even so
[it is] now.
4:30 Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the
bond-woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not
be heir with the son of the free-woman.
4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman,
but of the free.
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