Study Desk

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.

Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND."

And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.

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

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.

But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,

But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity

Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.