17. Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them.
18. If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.
19. Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.
20. I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone. But at this distance I don’t know how else to help you.
21. Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says?
22. The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife.
23. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.
24. These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them.
25. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law.
26. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother.