Which of these women would be your mother?
Are you still born of the slave?
“These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” – Galatians 4:24-26
Two mothers talked about here one gives birth to slaves and the other to freed people. One is based on a covenant of Law and the other based on the covenant of Grace.
Which one is your mother?
I come back to a familiar question and one that I hope will cause all of us to meditate on the answer to:
If God is anything other than Love, do you really want to spend eternity with Him?
How do you know if you are following a God of Love or a false god?
Let me say that before I accepted Christ I had a whole lot of guilt, shame and depression over who I was, after understanding Grace- even though it was just a glimmer at first I began to see that the guilt, shame and depression and despair that I felt no longer belonged to me. This being said I can tell you some warning signs of being from the slave mother:
You might be a legalist if:
1) You see people as labels and they have to fit a box. (Jesus didn’t fit a box)
2) A person “makes a mistake” according to you and that changes your feelings or thoughts about them. (Jesus and any person He came in contact with)
3) There is no grey area or only a little- judgment is sure and swift and you have the answer of the right and wrongness of it. (Jesus healing on the Sabbath)
4) You see people as tools or a means to an end a way for you to get what you want and think you need. (Jesus shuns the society type for the common person)
5) You see the wrongness of others before you see the lightness of Love. (Jesus and the woman caught in adultery)
6) You judge yourself and it’s no surprise that you do as you judge everyone else too- in whatever way you judge others you will be judged.
7) Your pain is more important than others pain, your happiness is more important than others happiness and your rightness is more important than someone else’s rightness. (Jesus and Peter- Peter was zealous but Jesus gave him wisdom)
These are just a few and there are probably many more but each of these can cause spiritual illness and pain for one simple reason- you have the wrong mother!
Thank you for these words and the explanation of the verse. We are of the free.
Being free means we are free from sin and condemnation, which in turn changes our focus from ourselves to loving Christ and others. Thanking God and praising Him for the gift of righteousness that we could have never gotten on our own and sharing this great love of God with others becomes our goal.
Amen and thank you sister.
Yes the Grace of God that brings the Freedom of Christ IS the Good News of the gospel. The people during that day already had the law which was doing what it does best and
showing people they will never measure up. But thanks be to God the continual sacrifices made by the people for their sin wasnt what He wanted- He wanted a relationship- and that
only came by way of The Ultimate Sacrafice- Jesus- now we are called to make the choice of which mountain we stand on and which Momma we call ours!
I just got back home late last night but I am hoping after some rest to get caught up on writing again. Thank you again sister and chat soon.
Bob