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“Let Us Continually Do Good to Everyone”
1 Brothers and sisters, if a person is overcome by some kind of sin, those of you who are governed by the Spirit are to restore such a person with a humble attitude; yet make sure that ˢyou keep a close eye on your own heart and conduct, so that ˢyou, too, don’t end up falling into the same temptation yourself.
2 It is the burdens of one another that ᵖyou are to carry; in this way ᵖyou will be fulfilling the Torah of the Messiah.
3 If someone supposes himself to be something, you see, even though he is, in reality, nothing, he is deceiving himself.
4 On the other hand, it is his own work and conduct that each person is to carefully examine. If he discerns genuine fruit, then he will have something about which he can confidently rejoice, based on something pertaining to his own life, and not on comparisons with someone else.
5 Each person, in this regard, must carry his own load.
6 If someone is receiving instruction in the gospel, he is to give his instructor a share of all good things.
7 Don’t be deceived; God will not be treated with contempt. Whatever a person sows, you see, this he will also reap.
8 For if someone sows to the evil desires of his mortal nature, then from the evil desires of his mortal nature he will reap a harvest of ultimate death and punishment. If someone sows to the Spirit, however, then from the Spirit he will reap a harvest of life in the coming age.
9 In other words, however weary we may become, let us never give up doing what is good. At the appointed time, you see, we will reap a harvest, if we don’t despair and quit.
10 So, in light of these things, as long as we still have opportunity, let us continually do good to everyone, especially to those who belong to the household of faith.
“God Forbid That I Ever Speak in Exalted Terms of Anything Other Than the Cross of Our Lord Jesus the Messiah”
11 NOTICE HOW LARGE THESE LETTERS ARE AS I WRITE TO YOU NOW WITH MY OWN HAND.
12 Those who wish to impress others in external matters and things accomplished by mere human strength—these are the ones who are pressuring you to be circumcised! Their sole motive is to avoid being persecuted on account of the true significance of the cross of the Messiah.
13 Why, not even the advocates of circumcision themselves obey Torah! The truth is, they want you to be circumcised so that they can make self-exalting claims about what? About the fact that you allowed yourselves to be circumcised.
14 As for me, God forbid that I ever speak in exalted terms of anything other than the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through which,+ as I see it, it is the world that stands shamefully condemned and crucified—and I the same in the eyes of the world.
15 Again, it isn’t one’s state of having been circumcised or uncircumcised that is critical, but a new creation.
16 All who live their lives according to this standard: May peace, and mercy, be upon them, even+ upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on, any additional difficulty to me let no one bring, for I bear on my body the scars that prove I am a slave of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.