Galatians 4:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Surely a simple offense between children could not be the reason for expulsion and disinheritance. But the Apostle, as a Hebrew of Hebrews, was brought up at the feet of the teacher Gamaliel. Gamaliel once restrained by his counsel the Pharisees who raged against the Lord, or against him. From Sarah's words, "For the son of the maidservant shall not inherit together with my son Isaac," the Apostle understood that this was no simple insult. Perhaps Ishmael, as the elder and as one circumcised at a time when he could understand and feel what he had endured, was claiming the birthright for himself. Therefore Scripture called the children's quarrel an insult. For this reason Sarah, perhaps unable to bear such words or tolerate the habit of the maidservant's son as he claimed the birthright for himself, broke out passionately: "Cast out the maidservant with her son," and so forth. Since this seemed too harsh to Abraham, for the firstborn were always to receive the greater part of the property, God confirmed Sarah's words. He willed that the free woman remain in the house and the maidservant be cast out. He said to Abraham: "Let it not seem harsh in your eyes concerning the maidservant and the boy. Whatever Sarah has said to you, do according to her word. For in Isaac shall your seed be called" (Gen. 21:12). Therefore, just as Ishmael, the elder brother, then persecuted the boy still fed with milk, claiming for himself the advantages of circumcision and the birthright, so now Israel according to the flesh, or Ishmael, raises its head. It is stirred up and shows arrogance against the younger brother, that is, the people of Christ from the Gentiles. Let us attend to the madness of the Jews, who also killed the Lord, persecuted the prophets and Apostles, and resist the will of God. Then we shall see that far greater persecutions against Christians were stirred up by the Jews than even those that came from the Gentiles. Are we amazed regarding the Jews? Even now those who are infants in Christ and live according to the flesh persecute those who are born of water and the Spirit. These, rising with Christ, seek the things above and not the things below. They live willfully, faciunt, quod volunt. In alliance with Ishmael they persecute Isaac. They are cast out with their mother, the Egyptian maidservant. Such people do not receive the inheritance, which only the one born according to promise receives. This understanding is also entirely fitting: the one born of the flesh persecutes the one born of the Spirit, spiritualem. Indeed, the spiritual man never persecutes the carnal man, but forgives him as a simple brother. He knows that in time the other can be perfected. And if he ever sees the anger of the son of the Egyptian woman, he remembers one and the same Parent. He created light, the ox, and the gnat. He also remembers that in a great house there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay (2 Tim. 2:20). Therefore let us say with the Apostle Paul: "We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman." And, renewed in Christ, let us hear the words of the Lord speaking to the Jews: "If you abide in My word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:31-32). Freed by this kind of freedom, the Apostle said: "Since I am free from all." "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" (1 Cor. 9:19; Jn. 8:34). Since he was conscious of his freedom from all vices and knew that he was a stranger to every lust and error, he rightly rejoiced in freedom in Christ. He said: "We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman, with which freedom Christ has made us free" (Gal. 4:31; Gal. 5:1).

According to Bishop Theophan, the features of the spiritual birth given by our mother, the Church, are these. She gives birth without a fleshly husband, without pangs, and without fleshly birth itself. She has none of this fleshly order. Yet she has more children than the one who has all these things. Thus spiritual birth is hindered neither by time nor by place. It can take place always, everywhere, in a single moment, and in greater number. Here the Jew has no advantage, and the Greek meets no rejection. Whoever a man may be, he is freely born anew and becomes a child of the new Jerusalem. Heaven and earth rejoice over this. Therefore the prophet beholds it under the image of festal joy. St. John Chrysostom exclaims: Who is this barren one? Who is this desolate one? Is it not clearly the Church from the Gentiles, formerly deprived of the knowledge of God? And who is she who has a husband? Clearly, the Jewish synagogue. But the barren one surpassed her in the multitude of her children. Do you see how Sarah by deed, and the prophets by word, wrote beforehand what was to come for us? But see: Isaiah said that she who was formerly barren afterward became the mother of many children. This happened typologically in Sarah. Though she had formerly been barren, she afterward became the mother of a numerous posterity. Paul also shows how the barren one became a mother. By this too he shows the closeness of the image to the truth under consideration. Therefore he adds: We, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. For as Sarah became a mother not by nature, but by promise, so in our regeneration nothing belongs to nature. The divine words spoken by the priest in the font of water recreate and regenerate the baptized, as though in a mother's womb. Therefore, if we are children of the barren one, we are also free. Is it not madness that those chosen so many centuries beforehand, and now having received freedom, should willingly subject themselves to the yoke of slavery?

Neither time, nor place, nor any other outward circumstance binds them. Always and in everything they have God and His glory. The turn of speech is this: we are not sons of the slave woman, so as to be under the yoke of bondage to the Law. We are sons of the free woman, so as to act freely in God's house. So this was appointed and prefigured from the beginning, as you see from the type cited. What sense is there, then, in possessing such dignity and voluntarily crawling under a useless yoke? Is it not madness, after being chosen so many centuries beforehand and now having already received freedom, to submit willingly to the yoke of slavery? (St. Chrysostom). What then do you command? (Blessed Theodoret).