I wish I could be with you right now and change the tone of my speech, for I do not know which way to turn in your case.

These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised simply want to make a fine outward show, only to keep you from being persecuted for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

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!