12. My friends, I beg you to be like me, just as I once tried to be like you. Did you ill-treat me
13. when I first preached to you? No you didn't, even though you knew I had come there because I was sick.
14. My illness must have caused you some trouble, but you didn't hate me or turn me away because of it. You welcomed me as though I were one of God's angels or even Christ Jesus himself.
15. Where is that good feeling now? I am sure that if it had been possible, you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me.
16. Am I now your enemy, just because I told you the truth?
17. Those people may be paying you a lot of attention, but it isn't for your good. They only want to keep you away from me, so you will pay them a lot of attention.
18. It is always good to give your attention to something worthwhile, even when I am not with you.
19. My children, I am in terrible pain until Christ may be seen living in you.
20. I wish I were with you now. Then I would not have to talk this way. You really have me puzzled.
21. Some of you would like to be under the rule of the Law of Moses. But do you know what the Law says?
22. In the Scriptures we learn that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave, while the mother of the other one had always been free.
23. The son of the slave woman was born in the usual way. But the son of the free woman was born because of God's promise.
24. All this has another meaning as well. Each of the two women stands for one of the agreements God made with his people. Hagar, the slave woman, stands for the agreement that was made at Mount Sinai. Everyone born into her family is a slave.
25. Hagar also stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and for the present city of Jerusalem. She and her children are slaves.