Thematic Bible
Galatians 4:1 (show verse)
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.
Galatians 4:2 (show verse)
He is subject to the control of guardians and stewards, during the period for which his father has power to appoint them.
Galatians 4:3 (show verse)
And so is it with us; when we were under age, as it were, we were slaves to the puerile teaching of this world;
Galatians 4:4 (show verse)
But, when the full time came, God sent his Son--born a woman's child, born subject to Law--
Galatians 4:5 (show verse)
To ransom those who were subject to Law, so that we might take our position as sons.
Galatians 4:6 (show verse)
And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry--'Abba, our Father.'
Galatians 4:7 (show verse)
You, therefore, are no longer a slave, but a son; and, if a son, then an heir also, by God's appointment.
Galatians 4:8 (show verse)
Yet formerly, in your ignorance of God, you became slaves to 'gods' which were no gods.
Galatians 4:9 (show verse)
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?
Galatians 4:10 (show verse)
You are scrupulous in keeping Days and Months and Seasons and Years!
Galatians 4:11 (show verse)
You make me fear that the labor which I have spent on you may have been wasted.
Galatians 4:12 (show verse)
I entreat you, Brothers, to become like me, as I became like you. You have never done me any wrong.
No Themes for this verse.
Galatians 4:13 (show verse)
You remember that it was owing to bodily infirmity that on the first occasion I told you the Good News.
Galatians 4:14 (show verse)
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!
Galatians 4:15 (show verse)
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!
Galatians 4:16 (show verse)
Am I to think, then, that I have become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Galatians 4:17 (show verse)
Certain people are seeking your favor, but with no honorable object. No, indeed, they want to isolate you, so that you will have to seek their favor.
Galatians 4:18 (show verse)
It is always honorable to have your favor sought in an honorable cause, and not only when I am with you, my dear children--
Galatians 4:19 (show verse)
You for whom I am again enduring a mother's pains, till a likeness to Christ shall have been formed in you.
Galatians 4:20 (show verse)
But I could wish to be with you now and speak in a different tone, for I am perplexed about you.
No Themes for this verse.
Galatians 4:21 (show verse)
Tell me, you who want to be still subject to Law--Why do not you listen to the Law?
Galatians 4:22 (show verse)
Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman.
Galatians 4:23 (show verse)
But the child of the slave-woman was born in the course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfillment of a promise.
Galatians 4:24 (show verse)
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
Galatians 4:25 (show verse)
(The word Hagar meaning in Arabia Mount Sinai) and it ranks with the Jerusalem of to-day, for she and her children are in slavery.
Galatians 4:26 (show verse)
But the Jerusalem above is free, and she it is who is our mother.
Galatians 4:27 (show verse)
For Scripture says--'Rejoice, thou barren one, who dost never bear, Break into shouts, thou who art never in labor, For many are the children of her who is desolate--aye, more than of her who has a husband.'
Galatians 4:28 (show verse)
As for ourselves, brothers, we, like Isaac, are children born in fulfillment of a promise.
Galatians 4:29 (show verse)
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.
Galatians 4:30 (show verse)
But what does the passage of Scripture say? 'Send away the slave-woman and her son; for the slave's son shall not be co-heir with the son of the free woman.'
Galatians 4:31 (show verse)
And so, Brothers, we are not children of a slave, but of her who is free.