Yea, and I went up by revelation, and commended with them of the gospel, which I preach among the gentiles - but between ourselves with them which were counted chief, lest it should have been thought that I should run, or had run in vain.

But from those who were influential (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people) -- those influential leaders added nothing to my message.

Brothers, I will use an illustration from the way people deal with each other: Even though an agreement is made between people, once it is finally settled, no one can cancel it or include additional provisions to it.

Why, then, the Law [what was its purpose]? It was added [after the promise to Abraham, to reveal to people their guilt] because of transgressions [that is, to make people conscious of the sinfulness of sin], and [the Law] was ordained through angels and delivered to Israel by the hand of a mediator [Moses, the mediator between God and Israel, to be in effect] until the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

Now the mediator or go-between [in a transaction] is not [needed] for just one party; whereas God is only one [and was the only One giving the promise to Abraham, but the Law was a contract between two, God and Israel; its validity depended on both].

In Him the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free man, male and female, disappear; you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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.

This set of circumstances contains an illustration; for these two women [Hagar and Sarah] represent the two Agreements [between God and mankind]. The one [Agreement], given at Mount Sinai, represents Hagar, whose children became [the Israelites], enslaved under bondage [to the requirements of the law of Moses].