1 But listen, as long as the heir of the host is a child, he has no advantage over the slaves, although he is the master of them all.
2 He is subject to those who care for him and who are entrusted with his affairs until the time set by his father comes.
3 In the same way we as children were first subjected to the created forces that govern the world.
4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son. He came born of woman and subject to the Law,
5 in order to redeem the subjects of the Law, that we might receive adoption as children of God.
6 And because you are children, God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of his Son which cries out: Abba! that is, Father!
7 You yourself are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and yours is the inheritance by God’s grace.
8 When you did not know God, you served those who are not gods.
9 But now that you have known God – or rather he has known you – how can you turn back to weak and impoverished created things? Do you want to be enslaved again?
10 Will you again observe this and that day, and the new moon, and this period and that year…?
11 I fear I may have wasted my time with you.
I still suffer for you
12 I implore you, dearly beloved, do as I do, just as I became like you. You have not offended me in anything.
13 Remember that it was an illness that first gave me the opportunity to announce the Gospel to you.
14 Although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
15 Where is this bliss? For I can testify that you would have even plucked out your eyes to give them to me.
16 But now, have I become your enemy for telling you the truth?
17 Those who show consideration to you are not sincere; they want to separate you from me, so that you may show interest in them.
18 Would that you were surrounded with sincere care at all times, and not only from me when I am with you!
19 My children! I still suffer the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
20 How I wish I could be there with you at this moment and find the right way of talking to you.
The comparison of Sarah and Hagar
21 Tell me, you who desire to submit yourselves to the Law, did you listen to it?
22 It says that Abra ham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free wo man, his wife.
23 The son of the slave wo man was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of God’s promise.
24 Here we have an allegory and the figures of two covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar: her children have slavery for their lot.
25 We know that Hagar was from Mount Sinai in Arabia: she stands for the present city of Jerusalem which is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free.
27 And Scrip ture says of her: Re joice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.
28 You, dearly beloved, are children of the promise, like Isaac.
29 But as at that time the child born according to the flesh persecuted Isaac, who was born according to the spirit, so is it now.
30 And what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave cannot share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.
31 Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
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Comments Letter to the Galatians, Chapter 4
• 4.1 As long as the heir of the host is a child. God made people to be free, holy, strong, in the image of Christ. No one is born as an adult; she must be a child first. Sim ilarly humankind has to go through infancy. There was a prim itive society, a naive science, a simple culture, a transitional religion. Peo ple re mained “among slaves”; Paul saw them dependent on “created forces” that govern the world. For him the laws of nature as well as the rules and prejudices of primitive peoples are one with the invisible forces of good and evil (the word we translated as “created forces” also means “directing principle”: Eph 3:10; Col 2:15). Now, through Christ, the great door of freedom opens to us. First, Christ liberates people from religious superstitions and from the prejudices that prevent them from knowing the Father and from becoming his children.
He came born of woman and subject to the Law (v. 4). Christ saves humans because he is a man. Christ came first as the savior of the Jewish people and, to save them, he became one of them. He received his whole formation from the Law, namely, from the people and religion of the Old Testament. This Law was highly positive, but, as time passed, we had to be redeemed from the yoke of this Law to receive the fullness of divine truth.
We must see in this obedience of Christ born of woman and subject to the Law a fundamental disposition of the plan of salvation: God saves us by becoming one of us. The same is now true of the Church, which saves people rather than giving to them or “being interested in them.” The Church cannot bring them a permanent and transforming salvation if it does not share in their very condition.
This is the reason why the Lord wants Third World churches to bear the cross of the people of their continents: their mar gin alization, their sufferings and humiliations, in order to lead them to authentic salvation. When there are only middle-class churches following occi dental or Roman patterns, these churches are unfaithful to their mission.
You want to be enslaved again? (v. 9). We soon tire of liberty, for it always complicates life. It would be much simpler to be told: “This is right, that is a sin.”
Paul said to the Galatians: “You belong to Christ, be guided by his Spirit.” Did they really want to be more pliable with their ready-made judgments? Were they ready to restrain that kind of pride that accompanies the eagerness for social recognition? If not, there would be no Spirit. The Galatians actually preferred to walk along familiar paths. They kept certain festive days and obeyed the rules just like the Jews; they were, in fact, quite content with a mediocre faith and a love that risks nothing.
• 12. Here, a few more personal lines. These Galatians loved Paul, and Paul loved them, but some aspect of faith escaped them. That is why they felt more at ease with others than with Paul, those who had a sense of “religion” and did not fail to profit from it.
• 21. In the history of his ancestor Abra ham, Paul discovers an image of conflict opposing the true believer to the “Judaizers” – those who say one is saved by religiously ob serving practices.
At the start of sacred history is Abraham’s faith and the promise God made to him. It should be noted that this promise was not to be inherited in the same way as family goods, which had to be distributed among all the children. The promise will not come to Ishmael born like any other. (Paul says: “born according to the flesh”.) Rather, what God promised was only destined for the son of promise, Isaac: the one who was born through a miraculous and free intervention of God. Thus, from the very beginning of the Bible, we see that we do not come to faith and to God’s inheritance because we have a right to them, but through grace.
By clinging to their religious observances, the Jews were forgetting that they were, above all, the peo ple of the promise. Chosen by God in preference to other people, their mission was to announce that there are promises of God for all nations. They were wrong in thinking thus: since we are chosen by God, let ev ery one do what we do and observe our practices. Instead they should have shared their hopes with others; they should have taught others to believe in God’s promise and not put their trust in particular reli gious practices.
Hagar, the slave woman who gave birth to Ishmael, ancestor of the Arabs, becomes the image of the peo ple of the first covenant, people who received the Law on Mount Sinai in Arabia: they did not achieve true freedom and held the earthly Jerusalem as their capital.
While Sarah, the free woman, with her son Isaac, born according to the divine promise, represents God’s new covenant with those who believe in his promises. These are the free people, the Christians who wait for the heavenly Jerusalem.
Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Abra ham sent him away. This means: the inadequately converted Jews are disturbing the Galatians; the Church, then, has to send them away.