The Holy Bible

[2:1] Fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

[2:2] I went because God revealed to me that I should go. In a private meeting with the leaders I explained the gospel message that I preach to the Gentiles. I did not want my work in the past or in the present to be a failure.

[2:3] My companion Titus, even though he is Greek, was not forced to be circumcised,

[2:4] although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

[2:5] but in order to keep the truth of the gospel safe for you, we did not give in to them for a minute.

[2:6] But those who seemed to be the leaders—I say this because it makes no difference to me what they were; God does not judge by outward appearances—those leaders, I say, made no new suggestions to me.

[2:7] On the contrary, they saw that God had given me the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the task of preaching the gospel to the Jews.

[2:8] For by God's power I was made an apostle to the Gentiles, just as Peter was made an apostle to the Jews.

[2:9] James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be the leaders, recognized that God had given me this special task; so they shook hands with Barnabas and me, as a sign that we were all partners. We agreed that Barnabas and I would work among the Gentiles and they among the Jews.

[2:10] All they asked was that we should remember the needy in their group, which is the very thing I have been eager to do.

[2:11] But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him in public, because he was clearly wrong.

[2:12] Before some men who had been sent by James arrived there, Peter had been eating with the Gentile believers. But after these men arrived, he drew back and would not eat with the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who were in favor of circumcising them.

[2:13] The other Jewish believers also started acting like cowards along with Peter; and even Barnabas was swept along by their cowardly action.

[2:14] When I saw that they were not walking a straight path in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you have been living like a Gentile, not like a Jew. How, then, can you try to force Gentiles to live like Jews?”

[2:15] Indeed, we are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” as they are called.

[2:16] Yet we know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires. We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires.

[2:17] If, then, as we try to be put right with God by our union with Christ, we are found to be sinners, as much as the Gentiles are—does this mean that Christ is serving the cause of sin? By no means!

[2:18] If I start to rebuild the system of Law that I tore down, then I show myself to be someone who breaks the Law.

[2:19] So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead—killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on his cross,

[2:20] so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.

[2:21] I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!

[3:1] You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross!

[3:2] Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it?

[3:3] How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power?

[3:4] Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!

[3:5] Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?

[3:6] Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, “He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.”

[3:7] You should realize, then, that the real descendants of Abraham are the people who have faith.

[3:8] The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: “Through you God will bless all people.”

[3:9] Abraham believed and was blessed; so all who believe are blessed as he was.

[3:10] Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”

[3:11] Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, “Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”

[3:12] But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, “Whoever does everything the Law requires will live.”

[3:13] But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.”

[3:14] Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.

[3:15] My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it.

[3:16] Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural “descendants,” meaning many people, but the singular “descendant,” meaning one person only, namely, Christ.

[3:17] What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.

[3:18] For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.

[3:19] What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between.

[3:20] But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.

[4:8] In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

[4:9] But now that you know God—or, I should say, now that God knows you—how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

[4:10] You pay special attention to certain days, months, seasons, and years.

[4:11] I am worried about you! Can it be that all my work for you has been for nothing?

[4:12] I beg you, my friends, be like me. After all, I am like you. You have not done me any wrong.

[4:13] You remember why I preached the gospel to you the first time; it was because I was sick.

[4:14] But even though my physical condition was a great trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you received me as you would an angel from heaven; you received me as you would Christ Jesus.

[4:15] You were so happy! What has happened? I myself can say that you would have taken out your own eyes, if you could, and given them to me.

[4:16] Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

[4:17] Those other people show a deep interest in you, but their intentions are not good. All they want is to separate you from me, so that you will have the same interest in them as they have in you.

[4:18] Now, it is good to have such a deep interest if the purpose is good—this is true always, and not merely when I am with you.

[4:19] My dear children! Once again, just like a mother in childbirth, I feel the same kind of pain for you until Christ's nature is formed in you.

[4:20] How I wish I were with you now, so that I could take a different attitude toward you. I am so worried about you!

[4:21] Let me ask those of you who want to be subject to the Law: do you not hear what the Law says?

[4:22] It says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by a free woman.

[4:23] His son by the slave woman was born in the usual way, but his son by the free woman was born as a result of God's promise.

[4:24] These things can be understood as a figure: the two women represent two covenants. The one whose children are born in slavery is Hagar, and she represents the covenant made at Mount Sinai.

[4:25] Hagar, who stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, is a figure of the present city of Jerusalem, in slavery with all its people.

[4:26] But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother.

[4:27] For the scripture says, “Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose husband never left her.”

[4:28] Now, you, my friends, are God's children as a result of his promise, just as Isaac was.

[4:29] At that time the son who was born in the usual way persecuted the one who was born because of God's Spirit; and it is the same now.

[4:30] But what does the scripture say? It says, “Send the slave woman and her son away; for the son of the slave woman will not have a part of the father's property along with the son of the free woman.”

[4:31] So then, my friends, we are not the children of a slave woman but of a free woman.

[5:1] Freedom is what we have—Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

[5:2] Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.

[5:3] Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law.

[5:4] Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace.

[5:5] As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith.

[5:6] For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

[5:7] You were doing so well! Who made you stop obeying the truth? How did he persuade you?

[5:8] It was not done by God, who calls you.

[5:9] “It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say.

[5:10] But I still feel confident about you. Our life in union with the Lord makes me confident that you will not take a different view and that whoever is upsetting you will be punished by God.

[5:11] But as for me, my friends, if I continue to preach that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were true, then my preaching about the cross of Christ would cause no trouble.

[5:12] I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!

[5:13] As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

[5:14] For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

[5:15] But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

[5:16] What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.

[5:17] For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.

[5:18] If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

[5:19] What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;

[5:20] in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;

[5:21] they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

[5:22] But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

[5:23] humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.

[5:24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.

[5:25] The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives.

[5:26] We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.