Galatians 4:

[Chapter Synopsis: Now we are heirs of the promise, and no longer ‘minors’, we are freed from the guardianship of the Law, enabled by the Spirit to enter into our sonship. Sadly, the Galatians have reverted to being enslaved by rules, special days etc., and need to remember their first experiences with Paul. The symbolic pictures of Hagar and Sarah contrast living under the Law with living by the Promise.]

• v.1-7 Sons and heirs
• v.8-20 Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
• v.21-31 Comparisons of Hagar and Sarah

v.1-7 Sons and heirs

v.1,2 A child who is an heir is initially no better than a slave until they come of age, because they are still overseen by their guardian

v.1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.

v.2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

v.3-5 As minors we were just pushed around by the requirements of the world, but when Christ came and we received him, we were adopted

v.3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.

v.4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 

v.5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

v.6,7 So because we are now proper ‘sons’ He put His Spirit in us and as a ‘come-of-age’ son we are inheritors (receivers), no longer a save but an inheritor

v.6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, [daddy] Father.”

v.7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

v.8-20 Paul’s Concern for the Galatians

v.8-10 Before all this you were slaves to others’ opinions, but now that has changed – so why are you letting them push you around again having to observe special days?

v.8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

v.9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

v.10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!

v.11,12 It seems you’ve gone right back; please, become free like me

v.11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

v.12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

v.13-15 Looking back, when I came, even though I was ill, you welcomed me and blessed me by the way you received me; you would have done anything for me then, but how about now?)

v.13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you,

v.14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

v.15 (Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

v.16 Now, because I speak the truth, do you consider me your enemy?

v.16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

v.17-20 Those circumcisers want to win you back, but for what point? Don’t be zealous for God only when I’m with you. Dear ones, I’m in anguish for you until you come to maturity.

v.17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.

v.18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.

v.19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

v.20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

v.21-31 Comparisons of Hagar and Sarah

v.21-23 If you want to be under the Law, do you know what it says? Remember, Abraham had two sons, one by Hagar, one by Sarah; the son by Hagar was by human effort, but Sarah’s by God’s promise

v.21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

v.22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

v.23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

v.24,25 If we can take these as two pictures, Hagar’s son represents the Law, and was a slave and she also represents the present Jerusalem, a slave to the Law.

v.24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

v.25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

v.26,27 But the city of God in heaven is our inheritance and represents freedom. Isaiah prophesied about barren Sarai who felt desolate but who would have many children. Isa 54:1

v.26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

v.27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

v.28,29 You and I are children simply promised by God, like Isaac was. The slave persecuted the free son, just like now.

v.28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.

v.29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

v.30,31 The scripture tells us to get rid of the slave who can’t share in our inheritance [Gen. 21:10] so, in this picture, we are free, ‘children of Sarah’.

v.30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”

v.31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: