Christ Gives Freedom
1 Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don't ever become slaves of the Law again.
2 I, Paul, promise you that Christ won't do you any good if you get circumcised. 3 If you do, you must obey the whole Law. 4 And if you try to please God by obeying the Law, you have cut yourself off from Christ and his gift of undeserved grace. 5 But the Spirit makes us sure God will accept us because of our faith in Christ. 6 If you are a follower of Christ Jesus, it makes no difference whether you are circumcised or not. All that matters is your faith that makes you love others.
7 You were doing so well until someone made you turn from the truth. 8 And that person was certainly not sent by the one who chose you. 9 A little yeast can change a whole batch of dough, 10 but you belong to the Lord. This makes me certain you will do what I say, instead of what someone else tells you to do. Whoever is causing trouble for you will be punished.
11 My friends, if I still preach that people need to be circumcised, why am I in so much trouble? The message about the cross would no longer be a problem, if I told people to be circumcised. 12 I wish everyone who is upsetting you would not only get circumcised, but would cut off much more!
13 My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. 14 All the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself. 15 But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.
God's Spirit and Our Own Desires
16 If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires. 17 The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should. 18 But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you.
19 People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. 20 They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are 21 envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.
22 God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, 23 gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. 24 And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. 25 God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. 26 But don't be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are.
1 Stand fast therefore in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made vs free, and be not intangled againe with the yoke of bondage. 2 Beholde, I Paul say vnto you, that if yee be circumcised, Christ shall profite you nothing. 3 For I testifie againe to euery man, which is circumcised, that he is bound to keepe the whole Lawe. 4 Ye are abolished from Christ: whosoeuer are iustified by the Law, ye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit waite for the hope of righteousnes through faith. 6 For in Iesus Christ neither circumcision auaileth any thing, neither vncircumcision, but faith which worketh by loue. 7 Ye did runne well: who did let you, that ye did not obey the trueth? 8 It is not the perswasion of him that calleth you. 9 A litle leauen doeth leauen the whole lumpe. 10 I haue trust in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but hee that troubleth you, shall beare his condemnation, whosoeuer he be. 11 And brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why doe I yet suffer persecution? Then is the slaunder of the crosse abolished. 12 Would to God they were euen cut off, which doe disquiet you. 13 For brethren, ye haue bene called vnto libertie: onely vse not your libertie as an occasion vnto the flesh, but by loue serue one another. 14 For all the Lawe is fulfilled in one worde, which is this, Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe. 15 If ye bite and deuoure one another, take heede least ye be consumed one of another. 16 Then I say, Walke in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lustes of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to another, so that ye can not doe the same things that ye would. 18 And if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not vnder the Lawe. 19 Moreouer the workes of the flesh are manifest, which are adulterie, fornication, vncleannes, wantonnes, 20 Idolatrie, witchcraft, hatred, debate, emulations, wrath, contentions, seditions, heresies, 21 Enuie, murthers, drunkennesse, gluttonie, and such like, whereof I tell you before, as I also haue tolde you before, that they which doe such things, shall not inherite the kingdome of God. 22 But the fruite of the Spirit is loue, ioye, peace, long suffering, gentlenes, goodnes, fayth, 23 Meekenesse, temperancie: against such there is no lawe. 24 For they that are Christes, haue crucified the flesh with the affections and the lustes. 25 If we liue in the Spirit, let vs also walke in the Spirit. 26 Let vs not be desirous of vaine glorie, prouoking one another, enuying one another.