Galatians 4
What Happens in This Chapter
Paul compares a young heir, who lives under guardians until the day his father set, to people who were held under the law. He says God sent his Son, born of a woman and born under the law, so that people could be adopted as sons and receive the Spirit who cries "Abba, Father." Paul then asks why the Galatians are going back to watching special days and seasons, reminds them how kindly they welcomed him when he was sick, and says he is troubled about them. He ends by using Abraham's two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman, as a picture of two covenants, and says believers belong to the free woman.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
1Think about a boy who will get everything his father owns. While he is still a child, he lives like a servant. He owns it all, but he cannot use it yet.
2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
2Other grown-ups take care of him and his things. They do this until the day his father picked.
3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
3We were like that too. When we were young, we were slaves to the basic rules of the world.
4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
4But the right time came. God sent his Son. His Son was born from a woman. He lived under God's law, like everyone else.
5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
5He came to set free the people who were under the law. Then God could make us his own children.
6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
6You are God's children. So God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. The Spirit calls out, "Abba, Father!"
"Abba" is the word for father in the language Jesus spoke. It is a close, family word, like "Daddy."
7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
7So you are not a servant anymore. You are a son. And a son receives everything God has promised his family.
8Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
8Long ago you did not know God. You served things that are not really gods at all.
9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
9Now you know God. Even better, God knows you. So why go back to those weak, useless rules? Do you want to be slaves again?
10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
10You are careful to keep special days and months and seasons and years.
11I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
11I am worried about you. I am afraid all my hard work for you was wasted.
12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
12Brothers and sisters, I beg you, be like me. I made myself like you. You have never hurt me.
13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
13You remember when I first told you the good news about Jesus. I came to you because I was sick.
14And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
14My sickness made things hard for you. But you did not laugh at me or send me away. You welcomed me like an angel from God. You welcomed me like Jesus himself.
The KJV says "my temptation which was in my flesh." Here "temptation" means a hard test. Paul's sickness was a test for the people who cared for him.
15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
15You were so glad back then. Where did that gladness go? I know you would have pulled out your own eyes and given them to me, if you could.
16Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
16So have I become your enemy just because I tell you the truth?
17They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.
17Those other teachers act very interested in you. But their reason is not good. They want to pull you away from us, so you will care only about them.
18But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
18It is good to care deeply about something good. That is true all the time, not only when I am with you.
19My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
19My dear children, I ache for you like a mother having a baby. I will ache until Christ's life shows in you.
20I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
20I wish I could be with you right now. Then I could speak in a gentler voice. I do not know what to think about you.
21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
21Some of you want to live under the law. Tell me, do you really listen to what the law says?
22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
22The Bible says Abraham had two sons. One son's mother was a slave. The other son's mother was free.
23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
23The slave woman's son was born the ordinary way. The free woman's son was born because God promised him.
24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
24These things are a picture of something more. The two women stand for two agreements between God and people. One agreement came from Mount Sinai. Its children are born as slaves. That agreement is Hagar.
The KJV spells the name "Agar." It is the same woman the Bible elsewhere calls Hagar.
25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
25Hagar stands for Mount Sinai, a mountain in Arabia. She matches the city of Jerusalem as it is today. That city and her children are slaves.
26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
26But there is a Jerusalem above, with God. That one is free. She is our mother.
27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
27The Bible says, "Be glad, woman who has no children. Shout for joy, you who never gave birth. The woman left alone will have more children than the woman with a husband."
28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
28Brothers and sisters, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised.
29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
29Back then the son born the ordinary way made trouble for his brother. That brother was born by God's Spirit. The same thing happens now.
30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
30But what does the Bible say? "Send the slave woman and her son away. The slave woman's son will not share what the free woman's son receives."
31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
31So, brothers and sisters, we are not the slave woman's children. We are the free woman's children.
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