12
Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.
13
You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.
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And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
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What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
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Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
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They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.
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But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you.
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My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
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I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.
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Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
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For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
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But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise,
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which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar--
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for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children--
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but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
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For it is written: "Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband."
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Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
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But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
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Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."
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So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.