Galatians 4:7
New International Version
So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

New Living Translation
Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

English Standard Version
So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Berean Standard Bible
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.

Berean Literal Bible
So you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God.

King James Bible
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

New King James Version
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

New American Standard Bible
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

NASB 1995
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

NASB 1977
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Amplified Bible
Therefore you are no longer a slave (bond-servant), but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through [the gracious act of] God [through Christ].

Christian Standard Bible
So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

American Standard Version
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And therefore you are not Servants but children, and if children, also the heirs of God by Yeshua The Messiah.

Contemporary English Version
You are no longer slaves. You are God's children, and you will be given what he has promised.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.

English Revised Version
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So you are no longer slaves but God's children. Since you are God's children, God has also made you heirs.

Good News Translation
So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.

International Standard Version
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.

Literal Standard Version
So that you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

Majority Standard Bible
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir of God through Christ.

New American Bible
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

NET Bible
So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.

New Revised Standard Version
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

New Heart English Bible
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Weymouth New Testament
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir also through God's own act.

World English Bible
So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Young's Literal Translation
so that thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Sons and Heirs
6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God. 8Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.…

Cross References
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Romans 8:17
And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ--if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.


Treasury of Scripture

Why you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

thou.

Galatians 4:1,2,5,6,31
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; …

Galatians 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

but.

Galatians 3:26
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

if.

Galatians 3:29
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Romans 8:16,17
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: …

heir.

Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Genesis 17:7,8
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee…

Psalm 16:5
The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

Jump to Previous
Act Bondman Bondservant Christ God's Heir Heritage Longer Servant Slave Wherefore
Jump to Next
Act Bondman Bondservant Christ God's Heir Heritage Longer Servant Slave Wherefore
Galatians 4
1. We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under the guardian till he be of age.
5. But Christ freed us from the law;
7. therefore we are servants no longer to it.
14. Paul remembers the Galatians' good will to him, and his to them;
22. and shows that we are the sons of Abraham by the freewoman.














(7) Thus, by your redemption, adoption, and the gift of the Spirit, it is distinctly proved that the old state of servitude and minority is past. You have entered upon the full privileges of the adult son. And the son is also called to the Messianic inheritance.

Thou.--The singular is used in order to individualise the expression and bring it home pointedly to each of the readers.

No more.--Since the coming of Christ, and your own acceptance of Christianity.

If a son, then an heir . . .--The Roman law (which the Apostle seems to be following) treated all the sons as heirs, and provided for an equal division of the property between them.

Of God through Christ.--The true reading here appears to be, through God--a somewhat unusual expression. The Christian is admitted as an heir, not through any merits of his own, but through the process of redemption and adoption wrought for him by God.

Verse 7. - Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son (ὥστε οὐκ ἔτι εῖ δοῦλος ἀλλ υἱός); so then, no longer art thou a bondservant, but a son. "Ωστε, properly "so that," is frequently used by St. Paul for" so then" or "wherefore," to state a final conclusion (cf. ver. 16, below; Galatians 3:24; Romans 7:4, etc.). It here marks the conclusion resulting from the statements of the preceding six verses, viz. of God having sent forth his Son to do away with the Law, subjection to which had marked the nonage of his people, and to raise them to their complete filial position, and of his then sending forth his Spirit into their hearts loudly protesting their sonship. "No longer art thou;" by this individualizing address the apostle strives to awaken each individual believer to the consciousness of the filial position belonging to him in particular. Believe it: in Christ Jesus, thou, thine own very self, art a son! The phrase, "no longer," marks the position of God's servant new, as compared with what it would have been before Christ had wrought his emancipating work and the Holy Spirit had been sent forth as the Spirit of adoption; then he would have still been a bond-servant; he is not that now. This abrupt singling out one individual as a sample of all the members of a class is an instance of the δεινότης of St. Paul's style (comp. Romans 11:17; Romans 12:20; Romans 13:4; Romans 14:4; 1 Corinthians 4:7). The individual cited by the "thou" is neither a Gentile convert only nor a Jewish believer only; it is any member of God's kingdom. "A son," a member of God's family, an οἰκεῖος τοῦ Θεοῦ (Ephesians 2:19), one free of all law of bondage and in full possession of a son's privileges; no sinner, now, under his Father's frown; but accepted, beloved, cherished, honoured with his Father's confidence. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (ei) de\ ui(o/ kai\ κληρονόμος διὰ Θεοῦ [Receptus, κληρονόμος Θεοῦ διὰ Ξριστοῦ; and if a son, an heir also through God. So Romans 8:17, "And if children (τέκνα), heirs also; heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ." The inheritance here meant is the possession of every blessing which the theocratic kingdom entitles its members to look forward to. And the point of this added clause is that no further qualification is needed for our having a vested right in that inheritance, than that which is supplied by faith in Christ, uniting us to him and making us sharers with him; no such qualification, for example, as the Mosaizing reactionaries insisted upon (see Acts 15:1); no observance of ceremonial rites, whether of the Law or of such freaks of heretical" will-worship" as are referred to in Colossians 2:23. Thy faith in Christ (says in effect the apostle) gives thee now for good and all an assured place in whatever inheritance God designs to give his people. The manuscripts 'rod other authorities for the text present considerable variety in the reading of the last words of this clause. The reading adopted by L. T. Tr., Meyer, Alford, Lightfoot, and Hort and Westcott, namely, κληρονόμος διὰ Θεοῦ, is that found in the three oldest uncials, and presents a form of expression which was likely so greatly to surprise the copyist as to set him naturally upon the work of revision; whereas that of the Received Text, κληρονόμος Θεοῦ διὰ Ξριστοῦ, would have seemed to him so perfectly natural and easy that he would never have thought of altering it. The words, "heir through God," taken in connection with the foregoing context, insist upon the especial appointment of the supreme God himself; his intervention displayed in the most conspicuous manner conceivable, through the incarnated Son and the sent-forth Spirit. The believer is here said to be a son and an heir "through God," in the same sense as St. Paul affirms himself to be an apostle "through Jesus Christ and God the Father," and "through the will of God" (Galatians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1); for "of him and through him and unto him are all things," and most manifestedly so, the things composing the economy of grace which the gospel announces (Romans 11:36). The apostle has thus brought back his discourse to the same point which it had reached before in Galatians 3:29. The reader will do well to carefully compare this section of the Epistle (vers. 3-7) with Romans 7:25-8:4 and Romans 8:14-17. With great similarity in the forms of expression, the difference of the apostle's object in the two Epistles is clearly discerned. There he is discoursing the more prominently of the believer's emancipation from the controlling power of a sinful nature, which, under the Law, viewed under its moral aspect rather than its ceremonial, was rather fretted into yet more aggravated disobedience than quelled or overpowered. Here his subject is more prominently the believer's emancipation from the thraldom of the Law's cere-monialism, which in the present Epistle, relative to the troubles in the Galatian Churches, he has more occasion to deal with. Both the one deliverance, however, and the other was necessary for the believer's full consciousness of adoptive sonship; and each was, in fact, involved in the other.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
So
ὥστε (hōste)
Conjunction
Strong's 5620: So that, therefore, so then, so as to. From hos and te; so too, i.e. Thus therefore.

you are
εἶ (ei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

no longer
οὐκέτι (ouketi)
Adverb
Strong's 3765: No longer, no more. Also ouk eti from ou and eti; not yet, no longer.

a slave,
δοῦλος (doulos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1401: (a) (as adj.) enslaved, (b) (as noun) a (male) slave. From deo; a slave.

but
ἀλλὰ (alla)
Conjunction
Strong's 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

a son;
υἱός (huios)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

and
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

since [you are]
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

a son,
υἱός (huios)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

[you are] also
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

an heir
κληρονόμος (klēronomos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2818: From kleros and the base of nomos (reflexively) getting by apportionment); a sharer by lot, i.e. Inheritor; by implication, a possessor.

through
διὰ (dia)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

God.
Θεοῦ (Theou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.


Links
Galatians 4:7 NIV
Galatians 4:7 NLT
Galatians 4:7 ESV
Galatians 4:7 NASB
Galatians 4:7 KJV

Galatians 4:7 BibleApps.com
Galatians 4:7 Biblia Paralela
Galatians 4:7 Chinese Bible
Galatians 4:7 French Bible
Galatians 4:7 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a bondservant (Gal. Ga)
Galatians 4:6
Top of Page
Top of Page