Is this, I ask, trying to conciliate men, or God? Am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I should not be a servant of Christ.

But I was still unknown even by sight to the Christian Churches in Judea;

Before certain persons came from James, he had been in the habit of eating with the Gentile converts; but, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold aloof, for fear of offending those who still held to circumcision.

Tell me, you who want to be still subject to Law--Why do not you listen to the Law?

If I, Brothers, am still proclaiming circumcision, why am I still persecuted? It seems that the Cross has ceased to be an obstacle!

I could even wish that the people who are unsettling you would go further still and mutilate themselves.