Galatians 4:16-23

16But now I seem to have become your enemy! Is that because I am telling you God's true message?

17Those false teachers try very much to please you. But they do not really want what is good for you. They want to make you turn away from me. Then you will only want to listen to them.

18It is good for someone to try to please other people if they really want to help them. That is true all the time, not only when I am there with you.

19My children, I feel like a mother who is giving birth to you again. I will continue to feel that kind of pain until you become more completely like Christ.

20I want very much to be there with you now. Then I would know better how to speak to you. As it is, I do not know what to think about you.

21I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says.

22The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman.

23Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.