Galatians 4

What’s happening

Paul explains: as long as an heir is a child he is no different from a slave, though he owns everything, but is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. So also, when they were children, they were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Formerly, when they did not know God, they were slaves to those that by nature are not gods; but now they know God, or rather are known by God, so how can they turn back to the weak and beggarly elemental principles and want to be enslaved again? They observe days, months, seasons, and years, and Paul fears he has labored over them in vain. Paul begs them to become as he is, for he also has become as they are. They did him no wrong; they know that it was because of a bodily illness that he first preached the gospel to them, and though his condition was a trial to them, they did not despise or scorn him but received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. "Where then is the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?" Others court them for no good purpose; they want to shut them out so that they may court them. Paul wishes to be present with them and change his tone, for he is perplexed about them, "my little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you." Then he turns to the law: it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman; the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, the one by the free through promise. "These things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother." He quotes Isaiah 54:1: "Rejoice, you barren, who don't bear; break out and cry, you who don't travail; for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband." Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. As then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the child born according to the Spirit, so it is now. What does Scripture say? "Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not inherit with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.

Who’s in this chapter

Talk it through

1. Paul says that, in the "fullness of the time," God sent his Son. What does that suggest about how God works through history?
2. He says they are "known by God" rather than that they know God. How does that change the picture?
3. Paul talks about his illness as the reason he first preached to them. What does that suggest about how God can use weakness?
4. Paul's Hagar and Sarah argument is an allegory aimed at the agitators. How should we read this passage carefully, so it does not become an argument against anyone's heritage?