Galatians 4:19

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17 They ^azealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.

18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you.

19 ^aMy little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

Two Covenants

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: ^athe one by a bondwoman, ^bthe other by a freewoman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman ^awas born according to the flesh, ^band he of the freewoman through promise,

24 which things are symbolic. For these are¹ the two covenants: the one from Mount ^aSinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—

25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—

26 but the ^aJerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 For it is written:
^a“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.”

28 Now ^awe, brethren, as Isaac was, are ^bchildren of promise.

29 But, as ^ahe who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, ^beven so it is now.

30 Nevertheless what does ^athe Scripture say? ^b“Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for ^cthe son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”

31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Galatians 4:19

My little children - · My beloved children. As their conversion to God had been the fruit of much labor, prayers, and tears, so he felt them as his children, and peculiarly dear to him, because he had been the means of bringing them to the knowledge of the truth; therefore he represents himself as suffering the same anxiety and distress which he endured at first when he preached the Gospel to them, when their conversion to Christianity was a matter of great doubt and uncertainty. The metaphor which he uses needs no explanation.

Until Christ be formed in you - Till you once more receive the Spirit and unction of Christ in your hearts, from which you are fallen, by your rejection of the spirit of the Gospel.

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Galatians 4:19:**

Philemon 1:8

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