Galatians 5

¹ When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

² It is I, Paul, who tell you this: if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.

³ With all solemnity I repeat my warning: Everyone who accepts circumcision is obliged to keep the whole Law.

⁴ But if you do look to the Law to make you justified, then you have separated yourselves from Christ, and have fallen from grace.

⁵ Christians are told by the Spirit to look to faith for those rewards that righteousness hopes for,

⁶ since in Christ Jesus whether you are circumcised or not makes no difference – what matters is faith that makes its power felt through love.

⁷ You began your race well: who made you less anxious to obey the truth?

⁸ You were not prompted by him who called you!

⁹ The yeast seems to be spreading through the whole batch of you.

¹⁰ I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will agree with me, and anybody who troubles you in future will be condemned, no matter who he is.

¹¹ As for me, my brothers, if I still preach circumcision,[*a] why am I still persecuted? If I did that now, would there be any scandal of the cross?

¹² Tell those who are disturbing you I would like to see the knife slip.

¹³ My brothers, you were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love,

¹⁴ since the whole of the Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself.[*b]

¹⁵ If you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community.

¹⁶ Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence,

¹⁷ since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions.

¹⁸ If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you.

¹⁹ When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility;

²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions,

²¹ envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,

²³ gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course.

²⁴ You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.

²⁵ Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit.

²⁶ We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious.