Epistle to the Galatians - The New Testament

¹ Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.

² I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.

³ I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;

⁴ once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.

⁵ We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,

⁶ since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.

⁷ You began your race well; who came to obstruct you and stop you obeying the truth?

⁸ It was certainly not any prompting from him who called you!

⁹ A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.

¹⁰ But I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will not be led astray, and that anyone who makes trouble with you will be condemned, no matter who he is.

¹¹ And I, brothers -- if I were still preaching circumcision, why should I still be persecuted? For then the obstacle which is the cross would have no point any more.

¹² I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and mutilate themselves.

¹³ After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love,

¹⁴ since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

¹⁵ If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.

¹⁶ Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.

¹⁷ The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.

¹⁸ But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

¹⁹ When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality,

²⁰ the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements,

²¹ factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,

²³ gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.

²⁴ All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.

²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit

²⁶ and let us not be conceited or provocative and envious of one another.