15. Where then is the great attitude that you had? I swear that, if possible, you would have dug out your eyes and given them to me.
16. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17. They are so concerned about you, though not with good intentions. Rather, they want to shut you out so that you would run after them.
18. However, it’s always good to have people concerned about you with good intentions, and not just when I’m there with you.
19. My little children, I’m going through labor pains again until Christ is formed in you.
20. But I wish I could be with you now and change how I sound, because I’m at a loss about you.
21. Tell me—those of you who want to be under the Law—don’t you listen to the Law?
22. It’s written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.
23. The son by the slave woman was conceived the normal way, but the son by the free woman was conceived through a promise.
24. These things are an allegory: the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to slave children; this is Hagar.
25. Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because the city is in slavery with her children.
26. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27. It’s written: Rejoice, barren woman, you who have not given birth. Break out with a shout, you who have not suffered labor pains; because the woman who has been deserted will have many more children than the woman who has a husband.
28. Brothers and sisters, you are children of the promise like Isaac.
29. But just as it was then, so it is now also: the one who was conceived the normal way harassed the one who was conceived by the Spirit.
30. But what does the scripture say? Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the slave woman’s son won’t share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.
31. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we aren’t the slave woman’s children, but we are the free woman’s children.