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But I say: as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a servant, though he is master of everything.
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Rather, he is under guardians and household administrators until the time appointed by the father.
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So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental powers of the world.
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But when the fullness of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born from an ishah, born under Torah,
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so that he might redeem those under Torah’s condemnation, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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And because you are sons, Elohim sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, crying: “Abba— Father.”
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Therefore you are no longer a servant but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through Elohim.
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But formerly, when you did not know Elohim, you served those which by nature are not elohim.
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But now, having known Elohim— or rather, having been known by Elohim— how do you turn back again to the weak and impoverished elemental powers, desiring again to be enslaved to them?
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You meticulously observe days, months, seasons, and years.
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I fear for you, lest somehow I have labored over you in vain.
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Brothers, I ask you: become as I am, because I also became as you. You wronged me in nothing.
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And you know that because of weakness of flesh I proclaimed the besorah to you the first time.
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And though my bodily condition was a trial to you, you neither despised me nor rejected me, but received me as a messenger of Elohim— as Yahushua the Anointed.
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Where then is your former blessing? For I testify concerning you that if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
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Have I therefore become your enemy by speaking truth to you?
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They are zealous for you, but not honorably. Rather, they desire to shut you out, so that you might become zealous for them.
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But it is good to be zealous for what is good at all times, and not only when I am present with you.
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My children, for whom I again suffer birth-pains until the Anointed is formed in you—
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I desire to be present with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed concerning you.
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Tell me, you who desire to be under Torah as your covenantal standing— do you not hear the Torah?
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For it is written that Avraham had two sons: one from the servant-woman, and one from the free woman.
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But the one from the servant-woman was born according to flesh, while the one from the free woman came through promise.
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These things I am using as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants: one from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery— this is Hagar.
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Now Hagar corresponds, in this argument, to Sinai and to the present Yerushalayim, for she is in bondage with her children.
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But the Yerushalayim above is free, and she is our mother.
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For it is written: “Rejoice, barren one, who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who do not labor, because many more are the children of the desolate than of the one having a husband.”
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Now you, brothers, like Yitzchaq, are children of promise.
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But just as then the one born according to flesh persecuted the one born according to Ruach, so also now.
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But what says the writing? “Cast out the servant-woman and her son, for the son of the servant-woman shall certainly not inherit with the son of the free woman.”
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Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the servant-woman, but of the free woman.