May God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, bless you and give you peace. For Christ, to rescue us from this present wicked age,

Is this, I ask, trying to conciliate men, or God? Am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I should not be a servant of Christ.

It was in obedience to a revelation that I went; and I laid before the Apostles the Good News that I am proclaiming among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those who are thought highly of, for fear that I might possibly be taking, or might have already taken, a course which would prove useless.

He who supplies you abundantly with his Spirit and endows you with such powers--does he do this as the result of obedience to Law? or as the result of your having listened with faith?

And this he did that the blessing given to Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through their union with Jesus Christ; that so, through our faith, we also might receive the promised gift of the Spirit.

My point is this--An agreement already confirmed by God cannot be canceled by the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to cause the promise to be set aside.

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.

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

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

Indeed, the whole Law has been summed up in this one precept- -'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself.'

This is what I have to say--Let your steps be guided by the Spirit, and then you will never gratify the cravings of your earthly nature.

May all who rule their conduct by this principle find peace and mercy--they who are the Israel of God.