The Message

<div class="version vid97 iso6393eng" data-vid="97" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkGAL">
        <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="GAL.4">
            <div class="label">4</div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1 v2 v3" data-usfm="GAL.4.1+GAL.4.2+GAL.4.3"><span class="label">1-3</span><span class="content">Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v1 v2 v3" data-usfm="GAL.4.1+GAL.4.2+GAL.4.3"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v4 v5 v6 v7" data-usfm="GAL.4.4+GAL.4.5+GAL.4.6+GAL.4.7"><span class="label">4-7</span><span class="content">But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, &#8220;Papa! Father!&#8221; Doesn&#8217;t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you&#8217;re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v4 v5 v6 v7" data-usfm="GAL.4.4+GAL.4.5+GAL.4.6+GAL.4.7"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v8 v9 v10 v11" data-usfm="GAL.4.8+GAL.4.9+GAL.4.10+GAL.4.11"><span class="label">8-11</span><span class="content">Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God&#8212;or rather since God knows you&#8212;how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those tin gods? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v8 v9 v10 v11" data-usfm="GAL.4.8+GAL.4.9+GAL.4.10+GAL.4.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12 v13" data-usfm="GAL.4.12+GAL.4.13"><span class="label">12-13</span><span class="content">My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12 v13" data-usfm="GAL.4.12+GAL.4.13"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v14 v15 v16" data-usfm="GAL.4.14+GAL.4.15+GAL.4.16"><span class="label">14-16</span><span class="content">And don&#8217;t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God&#8212;as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me&#8212;that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can&#8217;t believe it.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v14 v15 v16" data-usfm="GAL.4.14+GAL.4.15+GAL.4.16"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="GAL.4.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God&#8217;s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.</span></span></div><div class="pc"><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="GAL.4.17"><span class="content">* * *</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="GAL.4.17"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v18 v19 v20" data-usfm="GAL.4.18+GAL.4.19+GAL.4.20"><span class="label">18-20</span><span class="content">It is a good thing to be passionate in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can&#8217;t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ&#8217;s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn&#8217;t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v18 v19 v20" data-usfm="GAL.4.18+GAL.4.19+GAL.4.20"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="label">21-31</span><span class="content">Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had </span><span class="it"><span class="content">two</span></span><span class="content"> sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human plotting; the son of the free woman was born by God&#8217;s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem&#8212;a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother&#8212;this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="content">Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="content">shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="content">Because the children of the barren woman</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="content">now surpass the children of the chosen woman.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="m"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23 v24 v25 v26 v27 v28 v29 v30 v31" data-usfm="GAL.4.21+GAL.4.22+GAL.4.23+GAL.4.24+GAL.4.25+GAL.4.26+GAL.4.27+GAL.4.28+GAL.4.29+GAL.4.30+GAL.4.31"><span class="content">Isn&#8217;t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless plotting (Ishmael) harassed the child who came&#8212;empowered by the Spirit&#8212;from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn&#8217;t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: &#8220;Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.&#8221; Isn&#8217;t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.</span></span></div>
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Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.
But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.
Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God—or rather since God knows you—how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those tin gods? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!
My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.
And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God—as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me—that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.
Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.
* * *
It is a good thing to be passionate in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can’t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.
Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human plotting; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:

Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,
shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,
Because the children of the barren woman
now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless plotting (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Լսել Galatians 4