¹ My point is this — As long as the heir is under age, there is no difference between him and a slave, though he is master of the whole estate.

² He is subject to the control of guardians and stewards, during the period for which his father has power to appoint them.

³ And so is it with us; when we were under age, as it were, we were slaves to the puerile teaching of this world;

⁴ but, when the full time came, God sent his Son — born a woman’s child, born subject to law —

⁵ To ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might take our position as sons.

⁶ And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry — ‘Abba, our Father.’

⁷ You, therefore, are no longer a slave, but a son; and, if a son, then an heir also, by God’s appointment.

⁸ Yet formerly, in your ignorance of God, you became slaves to ‘gods’ which were no gods.

⁹ But now that you have found God — or, rather, have been found by him — how is it that you are turning back to that poor and feeble puerile teaching, to which yet once again you are wanting to become slaves?

¹⁰ You are scrupulous in keeping days and months and seasons and years!

¹¹ You make me fear that the labour which I have spent on you may have been wasted.

¹² I entreat you, friends, to become like me, as I became like you. You have never done me any wrong.

¹³ You remember that it was owing to bodily infirmity that on the first occasion I told you the good news.

¹⁴ And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God — or Christ Jesus himself!

¹⁵ What has become then, of your blessings? For I can bear witness that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me!

¹⁶ Am I to think, then, that I have become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷ Certain people are seeking your favour, but with no honourable object. No, indeed, they want to isolate you, so that you will have to seek their favour.

¹⁸ It is always honourable to have your favour sought in an honourable cause, and not only when I am with you, my dear children —

¹⁹ You for whom I am again enduring a mother’s pains, until a likeness to Christ will have been formed in you.

²⁰ But I could wish to be with you now and speak in a different tone, for I am perplexed about you.

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be still subject to law — Why do not you listen to the law?

²² scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman.

²³ But the child of the slave-woman was born in the course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of a promise.

²⁴ This story may be taken as an allegory. The women stand for two Covenants. One covenant, given from Mount Sinai, produces a race of slaves and is represented by Hagar

²⁵ (The word Hagar meaning in Arabia Mount Sinai) and it ranks with the Jerusalem of today, for she and her children are in slavery.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she it is who is our mother.

²⁷ For scripture says — ‘Rejoice, you barren one, who does never bear, Break into shouts, you who are never in labour, For many are the children of her who is desolate — aye, more than of her who has a husband.’

²⁸ As for ourselves, friends, we, like Isaac, are children born in fulfilment of a promise.

²⁹ Yet at that time the child born in the course of nature persecuted the child born by the power of the Spirit; and it is the same now.

³⁰ But what does the passage of scripture say? ‘Send away the slave-woman and her son; for the slave’s son will not be coheir with the son of the free woman.’

³¹ And so, friends, we are not children of a slave, but of her who is free.