As I have said it before, so now I say it again, if anybody is preaching to you a good news that is contrary to the one which you have already received, a curse upon him!

You have heard, indeed, of my former conduct as an adherent of the Jewish religion, how I kept on furiously persecuting the church of God, and tried to destroy it,

only they kept hearing people say, "Our former persecutor is now preaching as good news the faith which once he tried to destroy,"

they did not try it even for the sake of the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who stole in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to make us slaves again.

Those who were looked upon as leaders -- what they were makes no difference to me -- God pays no attention to outward appearances these leaders added nothing new to me.

On the contrary, because they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been entrusted with it for the Jews --

I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

O senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was pictured as the crucified One?

I want to ask you only this one thing: Did you receive the Spirit by doing what the law commands, or by believing the message you heard?

just as "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God"?

So the men of faith are blessed as partners with trusting Abraham.

I mean this: The law which was given four hundred and thirty years later could not annul the contract which had already been ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

But the Scripture pictures all mankind as prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing through faith in Christ might be given to those who have faith.

I mean this: As long as the heir is under age he is not a whit better off than a slave, although he is heir of all the property,

to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might be adopted as sons.

But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,

I beg you, brothers, take my point of view, just as I took yours. You did me no injustice then.

but still you did not scorn the test my illness made of you, nor did you spurn me for it; on the contrary, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.

This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves;

But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born by the power of the Spirit, so it is today.

As for me, myself, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In such a case the hindrance done by the cross has presumably ceased!

For the whole law is summed up in one saying, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I now warn you, as I have done before, that those who practice such things shall not be heirs of the kingdom of God.

Indeed, the very men who let themselves be circumcised do not themselves observe the law. But they simply want you to let yourselves be circumcised, so that they can boast of you as members of their party.

Let nobody trouble me after this, for I carry on my body the scars that mark me as Jesus' slave.