15. You were very happy then, but where is that joy now? I am ready to testify that you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me if that were possible.
16. Now am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17. Those people are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and follow only them.
18. It is good for people to show interest in you, but only if their purpose is good. This is always true, not just when I am with you.
19. My little children, again I feel the pain of childbirth for you until you truly become like Christ.
20. I wish I could be with you now and could change the way I am talking to you, because I do not know what to think about you.
21. Some of you still want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says?
22. The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman.
23. Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
24. This story teaches something else: The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai, and the people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.
25. She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of the earthly city of Jerusalem. This city and its people are slaves to the law.
26. But the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, is like the free woman. She is our mother.