³ Even so we, when we were children, ^(A)were in bondage under the elements of the world.

^20 [a]Therefore, if you ^(A)died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, ^(B)why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—

⁸ Beware lest anyone ^[a]cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to ^(A)the tradition of men, according to the ^(B)basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

⁹ But now ^(A)after you have known God, or rather are known by God, ^(B)how is it that you turn again to ^(C)the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

⁴ And this occurred because of ^(A)false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our ^(B)liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, ^(C)that they might bring us into bondage),

¹⁰ Now therefore, why do you test God ^(A)by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Christian Liberty

5 ^(A)Stand^[a] fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a ^(B)yoke of bondage.

¹⁶ who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

²⁵ for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—

²³ But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, ^[a]kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore ^(A)the law was our ^[b]tutor to bring us to Christ, ^(B)that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.