Study Desk

So it is not the children of the flesh who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

Not only that, but Rebecca's children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.

I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

As a fair exchange, I ask you as my children: Open wide your hearts also.

See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.

My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar.

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

For it is written: "Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman, than of her who has a husband."

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

At one time we all lived among them, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,

For you were once 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; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world