As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man is a preacher to you of any good news other than that which has been given to you, let there be a curse on him.

For do I now obey man, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I could not have been a servant of Christ.

For I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that has been proclaimed by me, that it is not {of human origin}.

I advanced in the Jewish religion beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen. I have been extremely more zealous in advocating the traditions [taught] by my forefathers.

and before I went up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I retired to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.

Only it came to their ears that he who at one time was cruel to us is now preaching the faith which before had been attacked by him;

Yea, and I went up by revelation, and commended with them of the gospel, which I preach among the gentiles - but between ourselves with them which were counted chief, lest it should have been thought that I should run, or had run in vain.

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.

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 --

for He who had been at work in Peter for his apostleship to the Jews had been at work in me too for the apostleship to the heathen --

So when James, Cephas, and John (who were reputed to be leaders) recognized the grace that had been given me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised.

only desiring that we would remember the poor??he very thing which I have also been diligent to perform.

Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision.

But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, "Though you are a Jew, you have been living like a gentile and not like a Jew. So how can you insist that the gentiles must live like Jews?"

Now if we, while trying to be justified by the Messiah, have been found to be sinners, does that mean that the Messiah is serving the interests of sin? Of course not!

For through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with the Messiah.

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 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Have you endured such sufferings to no purpose--if indeed it has been to no purpose?

for as many as are of works of law are under a curse, for it hath been written, 'Cursed is every one who is not remaining in all things that have been written in the Book of the Law -- to do them,'

Christ did redeem us from the curse of the law, having become for us a curse, for it hath been written, 'Cursed is every one who is hanging on a tree,'

Our freedom has been thus purchased in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing belonging to Abraham may come upon the nations, so that through faith we may receive the promised Spirit.

Brothers, I am going to use a human illustration: Even a human contract, once it has been ratified, no one can annul or change.

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.

Why, then, the law? on account of the transgressions it was added, till the seed might come to which the promise hath been made, having been set in order through messengers in the hand of a mediator --

Is the law, then, against the promise of God? God forbid. Howbeit, if there had been a law given which could have given life: then no doubt righteousness should have come by the law.

But before faith came, we were kept under Law, having been shut up to the faith about to be revealed.

So the law has been our attendant to lead us to Christ, so that we might through faith obtain right standing with God.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

I am afraid for you! I don't want my work for you to have been wasted!

And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God--or Christ Jesus himself!

How happy were ye then? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

Am I your enemy to-day, because I have been honest with you?

These people who have been instructing you are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They want you to avoid me so that you will be devoted to them.

my children, of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you:

for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman,

but he who is of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who is of the free-woman, through the promise;

for it hath been written, 'Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many are the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.'

But, just as, then, he that after the manner of the flesh had been born, did persecute him who had been born after the manner of the Spirit, thus, also now.

Those of you who are trying to be justified by the Law have been cut off from the Messiah. You have fallen away from grace.

And I, brethren, if uncircumcision I yet preach, why yet am I persecuted? then hath the stumbling-block of the cross been done away;

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

For the whole Law has been fulfilled in this one precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

For they themselves, having been circumcised, do not even keep the Law, but they desire you to be circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.

But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!