Galatians 4:30,31 - Children of the free woman

4:30

Paul now quotes from Gen 21:10 where Abraham is told that he has to get rid of the slave woman and her son. Now in the original context this seems cruel, but, as noted earlier, God does actually promise to look after Hagar and Ishmael (Gen 21:13,17,18), so it is not as cruel as it might seem. We should also note the emotional attachment that Abraham had to Ishmael (Gen 21:11). Now also note this. Go and look at Gen 21:10, the words quoted by Paul as authoritative. These words were said by Sarah, yet here they are seen as inspired by the Holy Spirit, and of deep significance. This has important implications for the inspiration of Scripture. All Scripture is God breather, even when they might be thought to just be the product of an emotional reaction. Of course we must read things in their context, but Jesus and apostles had an enormously high view of Scripture, which in their terms meant the Old Testament. The fact that these are words spoken by a woman may also have implications for our view of the role of women in the church, especially as it is Paul who quotes them, and he certainly would know who said them. This is not the place to get into a deep debate on this matter, except to say I would describe myself as a “soft complementarian”. By this I mean I believe the distinction between male and female is absolutely vital, is part of God’s creation order, and is part of His blessing to us. However, I do not believe in the rigid separation of roles (eg “women shall not preach to men” type stuff, and do not believe there is much Scriptural support for this.

Anyway, back to the immediate context. There is no place for works righteousness in the gospel. They had to completely reject any notion of following the Law in order to be more acceptable to God.

4:31

Paul closes this chapter (though, of course, it was not a chapter ending when he wrote it!) by summing up the whole matter. “We are not children of the slave but of the free woman”. We need to appreciate and understand this if we are to live our lives aright and if we are to understand our lives aright. If we start having a slave mentality then it is a sign that something is going wrong in our thinking or in our emotions.