Beginning

The son and the spirit

4 Let me put it like this. As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave—even if, in fact, he is master of everything! ² He is kept under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father.

³ Well, it’s like that with us. When we were children, we were kept in “slavery” under the “elements of the world.” ⁴ But when the fullness of time arrived, God sent out his son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ so that he might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

⁶ And, because you are sons, God sent out the spirit of his son into our hearts, calling out “Abba, Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son! And, if you’re a son, you are an heir, through God.

The true God and the false gods

⁸ However, at that stage you didn’t know God, and so you were enslaved to beings that, in their proper nature, are not gods. ⁹ But now that you’ve come to know God—or, better, to be known by God—how can you turn back again to that weak and poverty-stricken line-up of elements that you want to serve all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing days, and months, and seasons, and years! ¹¹ I am afraid for you; perhaps my hard work with you is all going to be wasted.

Paul’s appeal to his children

¹² Become like me!—because I became like you, my dear family. This is my plea to you. You didn’t wrong me: ¹³ no, you know that it was through bodily weakness that I announced the gospel to you in the first place. ¹⁴ You didn’t despise or scorn me, even though my condition was quite a test for you, but you welcomed me as if I were God’s angel, as if I were the Messiah, Jesus! ¹⁵ What’s happened to the blessing you had then? Yes, I can testify that you would have torn out your eyes, if you’d been able to, and given them to me. ¹⁶ So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷ The other lot are eager for you, but it’s not in a good cause. They want to shut you out, so that you will then be eager for them. ¹⁸ Well, it’s always good to be eager in a good cause, and not only when I’m there with you. ¹⁹ My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you! ²⁰ I wish I were there with you right now, and could change my tone of voice. I really am at a loss about you.

Abraham’s two sons

²¹ So, you want to live under the law, do you? All right, tell me this: are you prepared to hear what the law says? ²² For the Bible says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl and one by the free woman. ²³ Now the child of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, while the child of the free woman was born according to promise.

²⁴ Treat this as picture-language. These two women stand for two covenants: one comes from Mount Sinai, and gives birth to slave-children; that is Hagar. ²⁵ (Sinai, you see, is a mountain in Arabia, and it corresponds, in the picture, to the present Jerusalem, since she is in slavery with her children.) ²⁶ But the Jerusalem which is above is free—and she is our mother.

²⁷ For the Bible says,

²⁸ Now you, my family, are children of promise, in the line of Isaac. ²⁹ But things now are like they were then: the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the spirit. ³⁰ But what does the Bible say? “Throw out the slave-girl and her son! For the son of the slave-girl will not inherit with the son of the free.” ³¹ So, my family, we are not children of the slave-girl, but of the free.

Freedom in Christ

5 The Messiah set us free so that we could enjoy freedom! So stand firm, and don’t get yourselves tied down by the chains of slavery.

² Look here: I, Paul, am telling you that if you get circumcised, the Messiah will be of no use to you. ³ I testify once more, against every person who gets circumcised, that he is thereby under obligation to perform the entire law. ⁴ You are split off from the Messiah, you people who want to be justified by the law! You have dropped out of grace. ⁵ For we are waiting eagerly, by the spirit and by faith, for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in the Messiah, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power. What matters is faith, working through love.

Warnings against compromise

⁷ You were running well. Who got in your way and stopped you being persuaded by the truth? ⁸ This persuasion didn’t come from the one who called you! ⁹ A little leaven works its way through the whole lump. ¹⁰ I am persuaded in the Lord that you won’t differ from me on this. But the one who is troubling you will bear the blame, whoever he may be. ¹¹ As for me, my dear family, if I am still announcing circumcision, why are people still persecuting me? If I were, the scandal of the cross would have been neutralized. ¹² If only those who are making trouble for you would cut the whole lot off!

The law and the spirit

¹³ When God called you, my dear family, he called you to make you free. But you mustn’t use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, you must become each other’s servants, through love. ¹⁴ For the whole law is summed up in one word, namely this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite each other and devour each other, watch out! You may end up being destroyed by each other.

¹⁶ Let me say this to you: live by the spirit, and you won’t do what the flesh wants you to. ¹⁷ For the flesh wants to go against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you can’t do what you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They are such things as fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, bursts of rage, selfish ambition, factiousness, divisions, ²¹ moods of envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things. I told you before, and I tell you again: people who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.

Fruit of the spirit

²² But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, great-heartedness, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. There is no law that opposes things like that! ²⁴ And those who belong to the Messiah, Jesus, crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the spirit, let’s line up with the spirit. ²⁶ We shouldn’t be conceited, vying with one another and jealous of each other.

Bearing one another’s burdens

6 My dear family, if someone is found out in some trespass, then you—the “spiritual” ones!—should set such a person right, in a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves: you too may be tested. ² Carry each other’s burdens; that’s the way to fulfill the Messiah’s law. ³ If you think you’re something when you are not, you deceive yourself. ⁴ Every one of you should test your own work, and then you will have a reason to boast of yourself, not of somebody else. ⁵ Each of you, you see, will have to carry your own load.

Practical support in the church

⁶ If someone is being taught the word, they should share with the teacher all the good things they have. ⁷ Don’t be misled; God won’t have people turning their noses up at him. What you sow is what you’ll reap. ⁸ Yes: if you sow in the field of your flesh you will harvest decay from your flesh, but if you sow in the field of the spirit you will harvest eternal life from the spirit. ⁹ Don’t lose your enthusiasm for behaving properly. You’ll bring in the harvest at the proper time, if you don’t become weary. ¹⁰ So, then, while we have the chance, let’s do good to everyone, and particularly to the household of the faith.

Boasting in the cross

¹¹ Look at the large-size letters I’m writing to you in my own hand. ¹² It’s the people who want to make a fine showing in the flesh who are trying to force you into getting circumcised—for this purpose only, that they may avoid persecution for the Messiah’s cross. ¹³ You see, even the circumcised ones don’t keep the law; rather, they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast about your flesh.

¹⁴ As for me, God forbid that I should boast—except in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. ¹⁵ Circumcision, you see, is nothing; neither is uncircumcision! What matters is new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy on everyone who lines up by that standard—yes, on God’s Israel.

¹⁷ For the rest, let nobody make trouble for me. You see, I carry the marks of Jesus on my body.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah be with your spirit, my dear family. Amen.