I plead with you to do as I did when I was with you, and not obey all the Jewish rules and rituals.

Galatians 4:8-20

8 When you did not have a relationship with God [MET], you served gods that really did not exist [MET]. You were their slaves. 9 But now you have come to know God. Perhaps it would be better to say that now God knows you. So now you are acting foolishly! ◄You are again believing that by obeying rules and rites you will benefit spiritually! [RHQ] Those rules are ineffective and inadequate! You are wanting to obey them again [MET] like slaves obey their masters. [RHQ] 10 You non-Jews are carefully practicing Jewish rules and rituals about what you should do ◄on Sabbaths/on Jewish days of rest► and on the first day of each month and on special seasons and years.

11 I ◄worry/am concerned► about your mistaken ideas. I do not want to have so strenuously served you in vain. 12 My fellow believers, I strongly urge you that you do as I do. Stop thinking that you have to obey ◄Jewish rules and rituals/ceremonial laws►. When I was with you, I did not obey all the Jewish rules and rituals, just like you did not obey them.

At that time you treated me entirely as you should have [LIT]. 13 You know that the first time I preached to you, I went to your area to regain my health, because I was physically weak. 14 Although you might have despised me because I was physically weak, you did not despise me or act contemptuously/disrespectfully toward me. Instead, you welcomed me like you would welcome an angel from God. You welcomed me like you would welcome Christ Jesus! 15 ◄I am disappointed that you have forgotten that then you declared that you were pleased with me./Have you forgotten that then you declared that you were pleased with me?► [RHQ] I can testify that you would have done anything to help me. You would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me, if that would have helped me! 16 So I am very disappointed that you now act as though [RHQ] I have become hostile to you because I have kept speaking the true message about Christ to you. 17 Those who are insisting on obeying Jewish rules are eagerly showing interest in you, but what they are doing is not good. They even want you not to associate with me and other true believers, because they want you to eagerly show interest in them, not in us. 18 But just like it always feels good to have others show that they appreciate you, I would like you always to appreciate me, and not only when I am with you. 19 You who are like my children, once again I am very worried/concerned about you [MET], and I will continue to be worried/concerned until Christ’s nature becomes developed in you completely and wholeheartedly [MET] as a child becomes developed in his mother’s womb. 20 But I do wish that I could be with you now and that I might talk more gently with you, because I do not know what to do about you while we are apart.