I am astonished that you are beginning so soon to turn away from Him who called you by the favor of Christ, to a different good news,

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!

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

chose to unveil His Son in me, so that I might preach the good news about Him among the heathen, at once, before I conferred with any human creatures,

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.

and not another single one of the apostles did I see, except James, the Lord's brother.

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

I went up under the guidance of a divine revelation. Now I laid before them the good news that I was in the habit of preaching among the heathen, but first I did so privately before the leaders, for fear that my course might be or might have been to no purpose.

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 --

and because they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, the so-called pillar apostles, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, with the understanding that we should go to the heathen and they to the Jews.

The rest of the Jewish Christians, too, joined him in this pretense so that even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their pretense.

But when I saw that they were not living up to the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, and that before them all, "If you are living like a heathen and not like a Jew, although you are a Jew yourself, why do you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God.

Are you so senseless? Did you begin by the Spirit, but are now approaching perfection by fleshly means?

Have you suffered so much for nothing? If it really is for nothing.

So you see, it is the men of faith who are the real descendants of Abraham.

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

that the blessing promised to Abraham might through Jesus Christ come to the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and his descendant. It does not say, "and to your descendants," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your descendant," that is, Christ.

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.

For if our inheritance depends on the law, it can no longer depend on the promise. But it was by promise that God so graciously bestowed it upon Abraham.

Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law.

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.

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

So when we were spiritually under age, we were slaves to the world's crude notions,

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

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir by God's own act.

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?

These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely. They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention.

O my dear children, I am suffering a mother's birth pangs for you again, until Christ is formed in you.

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.

But what does the Scripture say? "Drive off the slave girl and her son, for the slave girl's son shall never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."

So, brothers, we are children, not of a slave girl but of a free woman.

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please.

Let us stop being ambitious for honors, so challenging one another, envying one another.

Practice bearing one another's burdens, and in this way carry out the law of Christ.

So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us practice doing good to everybody, but especially to the members of the family of faith.

See what large letters I make, when I write to you with my own hand!

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.