My dear children! Once again, just like a mother in childbirth, I feel the same kind of pain for you until Christ's nature is formed in you. How I wish I were with you now, so that I could take a different attitude toward you. I am so worried about you!

Let me ask those of you who want to be subject to the Law: do you not hear what the Law says? It says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, and the other by a free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the usual way, but his son by the free woman was born as a result of God's promise. These things can be understood as a figure: the two women represent two covenants. The one whose children are born in slavery is Hagar, and she represents the covenant made at Mount Sinai. Hagar, who stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, is a figure of the present city of Jerusalem, in slavery with all its people. But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother. For the scripture says, "Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose husband never left her."

Now, you, my brothers, are God's children as a result of his promise, just as Isaac was. At that time the son who was born in the usual way persecuted the one who was born because of God's Spirit; and it is the same now. But what does the scripture says? It says, "Send the slave woman and her son away; for the son of the slave woman will not have a part of the father's property along with the son of the free woman." So then, my brothers, we are not the children of a slave woman but of a free woman.

Freedom is what we have - Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

Galatians 4:19-5:1

Thank God for the freedom you enjoy as a U.S. citizen. But above all, believers everywhere can praise Him for the freedom that is found in Christ!

Our greatest freedom is freedom from sin.

Our Daily Bread - July 4, 2003