to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again.

Those who were regarded as the leaders??hat they once were makes no difference to me; God takes no account of external differences??he leaders contributed nothing new to me.

On the contrary, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been intrusted with it for the Jews??8 for he who actuated Peter to be an apostle to the Jews also actuated me to be one to the heathen??9 and when they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the church, pledged Barnabas and me their co-operation, with the understanding that we should work among the heathen and they among the Jews.

but who know that a man is not made upright by doing what the Law commands, but by faith in Christ Jesus??ven we believed in Christ Jesus, so as to be made upright by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands??or by doing what the Law commands no one can be made upright.

If through our efforts to be made upright through Christ, we have ourselves been proved as much "sinners" as the heathen, does that make Christ encourage sin? By no means.

This is all I want to ask you: Did you receive the Spirit through doing what the Law commands, or through believing the message you heard?

Just as Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as uprightness.

The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you."

That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith,

If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham.

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

I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property,

Take my position, I beg you, brothers, just as I once took yours! You took no advantage of me then;

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

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 warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

Let nobody interfere with me after this, for I bear on my body the scars that mark me as a slave of Jesus.