In light of these things, stand firm, and don’t allow yourselves to be loaded down, again, by a yoke of slavery!2 Mark my words! I, Paul, am telling you this: If you consent to be circumcised, the Messiah, to you, will be of absolutely no benefit. 3 I again issue solemn warning to every man who is on the verge of being circumcised: He will be under strict obligation to observe Torah down to its very last detail! 4 If it is by Torah that ᵖyou are seeking to be regarded as righteous, then you are as good as cut off from the Messiah; you have from God’s gift fallen away. 5 As for us, you see, it is through the power of the Spirit, by faith, that we eagerly await the hope of righteousness. 6 In union with Messiah Jesus, you see, it isn’t one’s state of having been circumcised or uncircumcised that carries weight, but faith expressing itself through acts of love. 7 You were running the race so well! Exactly who was it that shook your confidence and stopped you from obeying the truth? 8 Such swaying from obeying does not come from the one who summons you. 9 It takes only a tiny bit of yeast to corrupt the whole lump of dough. 10 Still, I on my part am confident in union with the Lord that you will clearly see and fully agree with the truth of my own stance on these matters. The person who is throwing you into confusion, however, will pay the penalty, whoever he is. 11 As for me, brothers and sisters, if I am still advocating the necessity of circumcision, then why am I still being persecuted? If I were doing that, my teaching about the cross wouldn’t be a source of stumbling and offense. 12 O that those who are troubling you would just go the whole way and castrate themselves!

13 Indeed, as for you, it was out of slavery that you were summoned, brothers and sisters. Only make sure you don’t twist this freedom into an excuse for gratifying the evil desires that seize the mortal nature; continually serve one another, rather, through acts of love. 14 The entire Torah, you see, is summed up in this one command: “ˢYou are to love your neighbor as yourself.”+ 15 If one another, however, you are like wild animals always biting and devouring, then watch out, lest you be by one another destroyed.

16 Now, I say this: It is under the governance of the Spirit that you are to conduct yourselves; then the evil things that the mortal nature wants you to do you will certainly not carry out. 17 The mortal nature, you see, seized as it is by sin, craves the opposite of what the Spirit wants. The Spirit, meanwhile, desires the opposite of what the mortal nature craves. These two, you see, are to one another fiercely opposed, and as a result, the things you want to do are the very things you do not do. 18 If it is by the Spirit, however, that you are being led, you are not subject to Torah.

19 Now the sinful things that the mortal nature wants people to do are very obvious: Sexual immorality, impurity, licentious behavior, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and other things like these. I am warning you now, just as I have warned you before: People who live that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 22 The fruit of the Spirit, by contrast, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, and self-control. Against such things there is no Torah.

24 Those who belong to the Messiah have crucified the mortal nature dominated by sin, along with its passions and its covetous desires. 25 If we are experiencing new life through the Spirit, then let our conduct to the Spirit also conform. 26 Let us not fall into an exaggerated and prideful view of ourselves, because when we are boastful, not only is it unfounded, but we are simply challenging one another to a fight, and of one another only become envious.