And they, when they had heard his statement, gave the glory to God. Then they said, "You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of Jews there are among those who have accepted the faith, and they are all zealous upholders of the Law.

Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church, who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus, in order to rob us of it.

The brethren

and they took with them the following letter: "The Apostles and the elder brethren send greeting to the Gentile brethren throughout Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.

Except

But certain men who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees but were now believers, stood up in the assembly, and said, "Yes, Gentile believers ought to be circumcised and be ordered to keep the Law of Moses."

Blessed is the man of whose sin the Lord will not take account."

Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery.

Beware of 'the dogs,' the bad workmen, the self-mutilators.

Take care lest there be some one who leads you away as prisoners by means of his philosophy and idle fancies, following human traditions and the world's crude notions instead of following Christ.

After

Consider therefore. Moses gave you the rite of circumcision (not that it began with Moses, but with your earlier forefathers)

Ye

As we have been informed that certain persons who have gone out from among us have disturbed you by their teaching and have unsettled your minds, without having received any such instructions from us;

This is what I command in all the Churches. Was any one already circumcised when called? Let him not have recourse to the surgeons. Was any one uncircumcised when called? Let him remain uncircumcised.

Later still, after an interval of fourteen years, I again went up to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any importance; but only faith working through love.

For these very men do not really keep the Law of Moses, but they would have you receive circumcision in order that they may glory in *your* bodies.