5:1
Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.
5:2
I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.
5:3
I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;
5:4
once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.
5:5
We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,
5:6
since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.
5:7
You began your race well; who came to obstruct you and stop you obeying the truth?
5:8
It was certainly not any prompting from him who called you!
5:9
A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.
5:10
But I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will not be led astray, and that anyone who makes trouble with you will be condemned, no matter who he is.
5:11
And I, brothers -- if I were still preaching circumcision, why should I still be persecuted? For then the obstacle which is the cross would have no point any more.
5:12
I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and mutilate themselves.
5:13
After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love,
5:14
since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
5:15
If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.
5:16
Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.
5:17
The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.
5:18
But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
5:19
When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality,
5:20
the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements,
5:21
factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.
5:22
On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
5:23
gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.
5:24
All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.
5:25
Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit
5:26
and let us not be conceited or provocative and envious of one another.
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