Galatians 4

¹ What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.  ² He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  ³ So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.  ⁴ But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵ to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  ⁶ Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, [1] Father.”  ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Paul's Concern for the Galatians

⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  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 principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

¹² I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you.  You have done me no wrong.  ¹³ As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.  ¹⁴ 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.  ¹⁵ What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.  ¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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 be zealous for them.  ¹⁸ It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you.  ¹⁹ My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰ how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.  ²³ His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

²⁴ These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.  One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.  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.  ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.  ²⁷ For it is written:

"Be glad, O barren woman,

who bears no children;

break forth and cry aloud,

you who have no labor pains;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband.”  [2]

²⁸ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.  ²⁹ At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.  It is the same now.  ³⁰ But what does the 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.”  [3] ³¹ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Galatians 5

Freedom in Christ

¹ It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.  ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  ⁵ But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.  ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

⁷ You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? ⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.  ⁹ "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.  The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.  ¹¹ Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.  ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

¹³ You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature [3]; rather, serve one another in love.  ¹⁴ The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself.”  [4] ¹⁵ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Life by the Spirit

¹⁶ So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  ¹⁷ For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

¹⁹ The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Ephesians 2

Made Alive in Christ

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature [5] and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.  ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.  ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.  ¹⁰ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

One in Christ

¹¹ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Footnotes

1. Aramaic for Father
2. Isaiah 54:1
3. Gen.  21
4. Or the flesh; also in verses 16, 17, 19 and 24
   5:14 Lev.  19:18
5. Or our flesh