Galatians 4

²³His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.

²⁹At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now.

²So Abraham instructed the chief servant of his household, who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh,

³and I will have you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

²⁰If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

⁴This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.

³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

¹⁰Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

¹⁵“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”

³regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

²³“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).

¹⁶For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁵Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

⁵He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.

⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

¹²He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

¹⁶The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.

²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

¹⁶The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

¹⁷And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²¹Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,

⁵to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.

⁶And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

⁴So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

⁹For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

¹¹Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)—

¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

⁸in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

³But the one who loves God is known by God.

³Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?

³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²⁰If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.

⁹As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹⁶Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.

¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.

⁵One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the Lord that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Command the Israelites and say to them: See that you present to Me at its appointed time the food for My food offerings, as a pleasing aroma to Me.

¹³In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

⁵For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter had somehow tempted you and that our labor might have been in vain.

¹⁶as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

⁸Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded.

²I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I spoke privately to those recognized as leaders, for fear that I was running or had already run in vain.

²⁰how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

⁵Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it.

⁴So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people are your people, and my horses are your horses.”

²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law.

²¹To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law.

¹⁵We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.

¹⁴But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.

⁷or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

¹⁰For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.”

⁶I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

⁴For He was indeed crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power. For we are also weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with Him concerning you.

⁴⁰He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me.

¹³And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.

²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

²⁷and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes.

²⁰Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

²He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

¹³For I testify about him that he goes to great pains for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

¹⁶By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

¹⁷If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?

³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

¹³In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

⁴Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.

¹⁰There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.

⁸Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

⁴⁵But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!

⁷You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth?

⁵Let the righteous man strike me; let his rebuke be an act of loving devotion. It is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. For my prayer is ever against the deeds of the wicked.

⁵We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

¹⁸For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

⁸Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. How I wish you really were kings, so that we might be kings with you!

²For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

²⁷Nevertheless, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending together as one for the faith of the gospel,

¹³⁹My zeal has consumed me because my foes forget Your words.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

¹⁴He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

¹⁴Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

²⁹For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

¹²Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in the full will of God.

¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

¹⁷Brothers, although we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in heart), our desire to see you face to face was even more intense.

¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us.

¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only what these arrogant people are saying, but what power they have.

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

⁹How can we adequately thank God for you in return for our great joy over you in His presence?

¹⁰All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²⁹Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

²³Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

²⁴So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹Now the Lord attended to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised.

²So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

²So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

³So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

¹¹By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.

⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

¹Now the Lord attended to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised.

²So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

¹⁰Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.

¹¹And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

²⁸Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

²⁹At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now.

¹⁵Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah.

¹⁶And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”

⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹⁰They will walk after the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says:

¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

⁸“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

¹⁷The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.

⁸the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

²He said: “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.

¹⁸For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;

²²Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels

²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

¹In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.

²And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

¹²The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.

¹⁰Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,

¹“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.

²“Enlarge the site of your tent, stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your stakes in deep.

⁹He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!

¹⁴Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer. May his name become famous in Israel.

¹⁵He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

⁵The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.

⁵The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.

¹¹But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?

¹²Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

²³His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

⁹For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹³For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

¹⁴For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

²⁵And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’

⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,

¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹¹Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.

¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews,

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

²³His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.

³⁴Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹¹Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Ishmael.

³⁵A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

¹⁶The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

²²But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁵Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?

¹³For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.

¹It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

¹²But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

¹³children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

¹Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

²Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

¹⁴Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.