6
“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.