1 From Paul, who is an apostle not from men nor through men but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
2 And from the brothers who are with me, to the congregations of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 He Jesus gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this present evil age. This is according to the will of our God and Father.
5 To him is glory forever and ever. Amen.
6 I am amazed that you so quickly turned away from the One who called you by the grace of Christ. You turned to different good news.
7 Yet this is not another good news. But there are some who trouble agitate you, and they would pervert the good news of Christ.
8 If we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any message other than that which we preached to you, let him be accursed condemned expelled .
9 We said before and now I say again, if any man preaches to you any message other than what you received, let him be accursed!
10 Do I now seek the favor of men, or of God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 For I make known to you brothers that the good news that was preached by me is not according to man.
12 I did not receive it from man. I was not taught it! It came to me through revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 You heard about the way I lived as a Jew. How I persecuted the congregation of God beyond measure. In fact I tried to destroy it!
14 I advanced as a Jew beyond many of my own age among my countrymen. I was more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 It pleased God to separate me even from my mothers womb and call me through his grace.
16 He revealed his Son to me that I might preach him among the nations. I do not confer with flesh and blood human beings .
17 I did not go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before I was. I went away to Arabia and again I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and waited with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.
20 What I write is true. God knows I do not lie.
21 Then I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 I was still unknown by face to the congregations of Judea that are in Christ.
23 They heard it said: »He that once persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.«
24 They glorified God because of me.
1 Fourteen years later I went again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. I took Titus with me also.
2 I went in response to a revelation. I demonstrated to them the way I spread the good news among the people of the nations. I did this privately before them for they have a reputation. I am concerned that by any means I should be running, or had run, in vain.
3 Titus was with me and he was not persuaded to be circumcised. He is a Greek.
4 This occurred because of the false brothers brought in secretly. They came to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. This was so they might bring us into bondage.
5 We did not yield to them for a moment or an hour! That way the truth of the good news the whole body of Christian teachings might continue with you.
6 Those who were recognized as important people did not add a single thing to my message. What sort of people they were makes no difference to me. God does not play favorites show partiality .
7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news to people who are not circumcised. Just as Peter had been entrusted with the good news to the people who are circumcised.
8 The one who made Peter an apostle to the Jewish people who are circumcised also made me an apostle to the people of the nations who are not circumcised .
9 When they saw the grace that was given to me, James, Cephas Peter and John, they who were known to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship. We were to go to the nations and they were to go to the people who are circumcised.
10 They wanted us to remember the poor. I was eager zealous to do this very thing.
11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I openly resisted him because he was completely wrong.
12 He ate with the people of the nations until some men James sent arrived. When they arrived, he drew back and separated himself. He feared those who were of the circumcised people.
13 The rest of the Jews were hypocrites with him, so much that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the good news. Therefore I said to Cephas, in front of them all: »If you, being a Jew, live as the nations do and not as the Jews, why do you compel the people of the nations to live like the Jews?«
15 We are Jews by birth, and not sinners from the nations.
16 Yet we know that a man is not righteous by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. We believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be righteous by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law. The works of the law justify no one.
17 We sought to be righteous in Christ. And we were found to be sinners. Is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid.
18 If I build up again the things that I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.
19 I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to for God.
20 I have been impaled with Christ. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh physical body I live by faith. This is the faith that is in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself up for me.
21 I do not reject the grace totally undeserved gift of God: for if righteousness is gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
1 O foolish Galatians, who fascinated cast a spell over beguiled influenced you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was openly presented impaled.
2 I want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law, or by having faith in what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now made perfect mature in the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain? Does it have no purpose?
5 He that provides the Spirit, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
6 Abraham believed God and »Jehovah considered his faith as his righteousness.« (Genesis 15:6)
7 You know that those who have faith are sons of Abraham.
8 The Scripture revealed ahead of time, that God justified the people of the nations by faith. He preached the good news beforehand to Abraham. He said: »In you will all the nations be blessed.«
9 So then those who have faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
10 Those who are of the works of the Law are under a curse. For it is written, »Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, by obeying them.«
11 The fact that the Law justifies no man before God is evident. The righteous will live by faith.
12 The Law is not based on faith. »He that does them will live by them.«
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. It is written; »Cursed is everyone who is hung on a stake.«
14 This way the blessing of Abraham might come upon the nations through Christ Jesus and we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brothers, I speak like a man speaks: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it.
16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He did not say to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.
17 Now this I say: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.
18 If the inheritance is based on the Law, it is no longer based on a promise. However God granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
19 What then is the law? It was added to cause awareness of sin because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.
20 A mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one.
21 Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid! If a law had been given which could impart life, righteousness would have been from the Law.
22 But the Scriptures shut up imprisoned pictured all things mankind under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 But before faith came the Law held us in custody. We were locked up until faith was revealed.
24 The Law was our schoolmaster Greek: paedagogue: a combination of schoolmaster, instructor, servant and guardian in charge of us to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you who were baptized into Christ put on clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one united in Christ Jesus. (John 17:21) (Ephesians 4:4-6)
29 If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.
1 But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he does not differ from a bondservant, though he is owner of the estate.
2 He is under guardians and stewards until the day set by the father.
3 When we were children, we too were held in bondage. We were slaves to the arrangement of this world.
4 When the full time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 Because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 So you are no longer slaves but a son. And as a son God has made you an heir.
8 However at that time, you did not know God. You were in bondage to things that are really not gods at all.
9 Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and poor fundamental things? Do you want to slave for them all over again?
10 You observe days and months, seasons and years.
11 I fear for you, that I have labored for you to no purpose and failed .
12 I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also used to be as you are. You did me no wrong.
13 You know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the good news to you the first time.
14 That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you did not despise or reject. You received me like an angel messenger of God, even like Christ Jesus.
15 Where then is your positive attitude? I bear you witness, that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
16 So then have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
17 They zealously eagerly seek you in no good way. They desire to shut you out, that you may seek them.
18 It is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you.
19 My little children, of whom I am again in labor pains until Christ is formed in you
20 I wish to be present with you now, and to speak in a different way, for I am perplexed about you.
21 Tell me, you that desire to be under the Law; do you not hear the Law?
22 It is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the freewoman.
23 How is it that the son by the slave woman is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise?
24 This contains an allegory symbolic drama . These women symbolize two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.
25 Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is. She is in bondage with her children.
26 The Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother.
27 It is written, »Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and cry, you who do not labor; for there are more children of the desolate than of the one who has the husband.«
28 Brothers, we are children who belong to the promise, the same as Isaac was.
29 Just like then, the son who was conceived in a natural way according to the flesh persecuted the son conceived in a spiritual way. That is exactly what is happening now!
30 What do the scriptures say? »Throw out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman must not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.« (Genesis 21:10)
31 Brothers, we are not children of a slave woman but of the free woman.
1 Christ liberated us for freedom moral liberty . Stand fast therefore, and do not become entangled again in a yoke of bondage.
2 Behold, I Paul say to you, that, if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision. He is under obligation to obey the whole Law.
4 You who seek to be righteous by Law are separated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace.
5 For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision means anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
7 You were running well! Who hindered you that you should not obey the truth?
8 This persuasion did not come from him who calls you.
9 A little leaven, leavens ferments the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view. And he that troubles you will bear his judgment, who ever he is.
11 But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then has the stumbling block of the stake been done away?
12 I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision.
13 For you brothers, were called for freedom; only do not use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh. Serve one another through love!
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
15 But if you continue to bite and devour one another, take care that you do not consume one another.
16 I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are in opposition to one another that you may not do the things that you would.
18 But if the Spirit leads you, you are not under the Law.
19 Now the works of the flesh sinful human nature are apparent. They are: fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, wrath, contentions, divisions, sects,
21 envies, drunkenness, revelries, and things like these. I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that those who practice such things would not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 meekness mildness , self-control; against such there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have impaled the flesh with its passions and lusts.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26 Let us not become egotistical, stirring up competition with one another, envying one another.
1 Brothers, if someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right. But you must do it in a gentle way. And keep an eye on yourselves, so that you will not be tempted, too.
2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
3 So if any one of you thinks you are important when you really are not, you are only fooling yourself.
4 Each of you must examine your own actions. Then you can be proud of your own accomplishments without comparing yourself to others.
5 For each person should carry his own load.
6 But let him that is orally taught in the word share all good things.
7 Do not be deceived. God is not mocked! A man will harvest what he sows.
8 He that sows to his own flesh will harvest corruption of the flesh. But he that sows to the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
9 Let us not grow tired of doing good things for in due season we shall harvest, if we do not faint.
10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.
11 See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand.
12 Those who desire to make a showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised. This is done so they may not be persecuted for the stake of Christ.
13 For not even those who receive circumcision obey the Law. They desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
14 Never should I boast except in the stake symbolic: self-denial and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through this stake that the world has been impaled to me, and I to the world.
15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision anything, but a new creature is.
16 The Israel of God will have peace and mercy. All who walk by this rule will also.
17 Let no one trouble me. I bear the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
18 The grace Greek: charis, divine favor, loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit Greek: pneuma, mental outlook, attitude , brothers. Amen.