Father Mike Schmitz

So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city.

Then by command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me both at Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

But I found that he had done nothing deserving death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to send him.

But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him.

Therefore, I have brought him before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, that after we have examined him, I may have something to write.

For it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate.

But he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.

So with us, when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe.

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So, through God, you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir.

Paul reproves the Galatians.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to those weak and beggarly elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more?

You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.

Brethren, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are."