13. But you know it was because of a physical illness that I first proclaimed the gospel to you,
14. and though my physical condition put you to the test, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself!
15. Where then is your sense of happiness now? For I testify about you that if it were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me!
16. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17. They court you eagerly, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly.
18. However, it is good to be sought eagerly for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you.
19. My children – I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you!
20. I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, because I am perplexed about you.
21. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law?
22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23. But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise.
24. These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.
25. Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
26. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27. For it is written:“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children;break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,because the children of the desolate woman are more numerousthan those of the woman who has a husband.”
28. But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac.
29. But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now.