So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Parallel translations
- WEB So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.
- KJV So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
- BSB Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
- NASB So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.
- NLT So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul concludes that believers are children not of the slave woman but of the free woman. Our identity in Christ is one of freedom, not bondage.
Overview
Summing up the allegory, Paul affirms the Galatians' true status: they belong to Sarah, the free woman, and therefore to the covenant of grace. This freedom is the foundation for the exhortation that follows in chapter 5. The verse closes the argument with a confident declaration of the believer's liberty in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gal 5:13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
- Gal 5:1Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
- John 8:36If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
- John 1:12–13But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
- 1 Jn 3:1–2See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
- Heb 2:14–15Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 4:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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