Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Listen To The Law. We Are Children of The Free Promise, Not of The Slave Covenant

²¹ Tell me, the ones wanting to be under the Law, do you not hear the Law? ²² For it has been written that Abraham had two sons— one by the slave-woman and one by the free woman. ²³ But the one by the slave-woman has been born according to the flesh, and the one by the free woman through the promise— ²⁴ which things are being allegorized^[a], for these women are two covenants. One^[b] is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar ²⁵ (now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia). And she^[c] corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she^[d] is a slave^[e] with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free— which is our mother^[f]. ²⁷ For it has been written, “Celebrate, barren one, the one not giving-birth. Break-forth and shout, the one not suffering-birth-pains. Because many more are the children of the desolate^[g] than of the one having the husband!”[Isa 54:1] ²⁸ And you, brothers, are children of the promise in accordance with Isaac. ²⁹ But just as at-that-time the one having been born according to the flesh was persecuting the one born according to the Spirit, so also now. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Send-out the slave-woman and her son. For the son of the slave-woman shall by no means inherit with the son of the free woman” [Gen 21:10]. ³¹ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of a slave-woman, but of the free woman.

Christ Set Us Free, So Stand Firm In Faith. If You Pursue The Law, Christ Will Not Profit You

5 Christ set us free for freedom. Therefore be standing-firm, and do not again be held-in^[h] a yoke of slavery.