| 1 | Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery. |
| 2 | Remember that it is I Paul who tell you that if you receive circumcision Christ will avail you nothing. |
| 3 | I once more protest to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to obey the whole Law of Moses. |
| 4 | Christ has become nothing to any of you who are seeking acceptance with God through the Law: you have fallen away from grace. |
| 5 | *We* have not, for through the Spirit we wait with longing hope for an acceptance with God which is to come through faith. |
| 6 | For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any importance; but only faith working through love. |
| 7 | You were running the race nobly! Who has interfered and caused you to swerve from the truth? |
| 8 | No such teaching ever proceeded from Him who is calling you. |
| 9 | A little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough. |
| 10 | For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man--be he who he may--who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him. |
| 11 | As for me, brethren, if I am still a preacher of circumcision, how is it that I am still suffering persecution? In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block! |
| 12 | Would to God that those who are unsettling your faith would even mutilate themselves. |
| 13 | You however, brethren, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an excuse for giving way to your lower natures; but become bondservants to one another in a spirit of love. |
| 14 | For the entire Law has been obeyed when you have kept the single precept, which says, 'You are to love your fellow man equally with yourself.' |
| 15 | But if you are perpetually snarling and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another. |
| 16 | This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures. |
| 17 | For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined. |
| 18 | But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not subject to Law. |
| 19 | Now you know full well the doings of our lower natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery; |
| 20 | enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of passion, intrigues, dissensions, factions, envyings; |
| 21 | hard drinking, riotous feasting, and the like. And as to these I forewarn you, as I have already forewarned you, that those who are guilty of such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God. |
| 22 | The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence; |
| 23 | good faith, meekness, self-restraint. |
| 24 | Against such things as these there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their lower nature with its passions and appetites. |
| 25 | If we are living by the Spirit's power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power. |
| 26 | Let us not become vain-glorious, challenging one another, envying one another. |