I repeat, no one is to think me a fool; but even so, pray bear with me, fool as I am, that I may have my little boast as well as others!

I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!).

Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison ??a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;

five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews,

but I was lowered in a basket from a loophole in the wall, and so managed to escape his clutches.)

There is nothing to be gained by this sort of thing, but as I am obliged to boast, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Of an experience like that I am prepared to boast, but not of myself personally ??not except as regards my weaknesses.

but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life.

Now this is playing the fool! But you forced me to it, instead of coming forward yourselves and vouching for me. That was what I deserved; for, 'nobody' as I am, I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles.'

But let that pass, you say; I was not a burden to you, no, but I was clever enough to dupe you with my tricks? Was I?

That will prove to you that I am indeed a spokesman of Christ. It is no weak Christ you have to do with, but a Christ of power.

But I trust you will find I am no failure,

and I pray to God that you may not go wrong ??not to prove I am a success, that is not the point, but that you should come right, even if I seemed to be a failure.

(Fail or succeed, I cannot work against the truth but for it!)

I am writing thus to you in absence, so that when I do come I may not have to deal sharply with you; I have the Lord's authority for that, but he gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you.

PAUL an apostle ??not appointed by men nor commissioned by any man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, ??2 with all the brothers who are beside me, to the churches of Galatia;

But the God who had set me apart from my very birth called me by his grace,

But even my companion Titus, Greek though he was, was not obliged to be circumcised.

But we refused to yield for a single instant to their claims; we were determined that the truth of the gospel should hold good for you.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. The man stood self-condemned.

Before certain emissaries of James arrived, he ate along with the Gentile Christians; but when they arrived, he began to draw back and hold aloof, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But I saw they were swerving from the true line of the gospel; so I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, though you are a Jew yourself, why do you oblige the Gentiles to become Jews?" ??15 We may be Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners,'

but since we know a man is justified simply by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing what the Law commands, we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus so as to get justified by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands ??for by doing what the Law commands no person shall be justified.

I do not annul God's grace; but if righteousness comes by way of the Law, then indeed Christ's death was useless.

Now the Promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it is not said, 'and to your offsprings' in the plural, but in the singular and to your offspring ??which is Christ.

(an intermediary implies more than one party, but God is one).

but Scripture has consigned all without exception to the custody of sin, in order that the promise due to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith.

But faith has come, and we are wards no longer;

but when the time had fully expired, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

So you are servant no longer but son, and as son you are also heir, all owing to God.

but now that you know God ??or rather, are known by God ??how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them?

These men make much of you ??yes, but for dishonest ends; they want to debar you from us, so that you may make much of them.

but while the son of the slave-woman was born by the flesh, the son of the free-woman was born by the promise.

But the Jerusalem on high is free, and she is 'our' mother.

but just as in the old days the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit, so it is still to-day.

Hence we are children of no slave-woman, my brothers, but of the free-woman,

in Christ Jesus circumcision is not valid, neither is uncircumcision, but only faith active in love.

I feel persuaded in the Lord that you will not go wrong. But he who unsettles you will have to meet his doom, no matter who he is.

Brothers, you were called to be free; only, do not make your freedom an opening for the flesh, but serve one another in love.

But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity,

But no boasting for me, none except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I crucified to the world.

above all the angelic Rulers, Authorities, Powers, and Lords, above every Name that is to be named not only in this age but in the age to come ??22 he has put everything under his feet and set him as head over everything for the church,

But, dead in trespasses as we were, God was so rich in mercy that for his great love to us

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift,

But each one of us is granted his own grace, as determined by the full measure of Christ's gift.

Be angry but do not sin; never let the sun set upon your exasperation,

Let no bad word pass your lips, but only such speech as is good for edification, as occasion may require, words that are gracious and a means of grace to those who hear them.

So do not be senseless, but understand what is the Lord's will;

and do not get drunk with wine ??that means profligacy ??but be filled with the Spirit,

in order to have the church as his very own, standing before him in all her glory, with never a spot or wrinkle or any such flaw, but consecrated and unblemished.

As for you fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the discipline and on the admonitions of the Lord.

For we have to struggle, not with blood and flesh but with the angelic Rulers, the angelic Authorities, the potentates of the dark present, the spirit-forces of evil in the heavenly sphere.

but the former proclaim Christ for their own ends, with mixed motives, intending to annoy me as I lie in prison.

The outcome of all this, I know, will be my release, as you continue to pray for me, and as I am provided with the Spirit of Jesus Christ ??20 my eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage. Whether that means life or death, no matter!

But then, if it is to be life here below, that means fruitful work for me. So ??well, I cannot tell which to choose;

But for your sakes it is necessary I should live on here below.

never acting for private ends or from vanity, but humbly considering each other the better man,

but emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant; born in human guise

But you know how he has stood the test, how he has served with me in the gospel, like a son helping his father.

And he was ill, nearly dead with illness. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me, to save me from having one sorrow upon another.

Well then, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. I am repeating this word 'rejoice' in my letter, but that does not tire me and it is the safe course for you. ??2 Beware of these dogs, these wicked workmen, the incision-party!

But for Christ's sake I have learned to count my former gains a loss;

and be found at death in him, possessing no legal righteousness of my own but the righteousness of faith in Christ, the divine righteousness that rests on faith.

Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press forward to appropriate it, because I have been appropriated myself by Christ Jesus.

But we are a colony of heaven, and we wait for the Saviour who comes from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Never be anxious, but always make your requests known to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving;

It was a great joy to me in the Lord that your care for me could revive again; for what you lacked was never the care but the chance of showing it.

But you were kind enough to take your share in my trouble.

You Philippians are well aware that in the early days of the gospel, when I had left Macedonia, no church but yourselves had any financial dealings with me;

Once you were estranged yourselves, your hearts hostile to him in evildoing; but now he has reconciled you by dying in his mortal body,

I am suffering now on your behalf, but I rejoice in that; I would make up the full sum of all that Christ has to suffer in my person on behalf of the church, his Body;

in him you have been circumcised with no material circumcision that cuts flesh from the body, but with Christ's own circumcision,

they get the name of 'wisdom' with their self-imposed devotions, with their fasting, with their rigorous discipline of the body, but they are of no value, they simply pamper the flesh!

but off with them all now, off with anger, rage, malice, slander, foul talk!

Servants, obey your masters here below at every point; do not work simply when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, but serve them with a single heart out of reverence for your Lord and Master.

for our gospel came to you not with mere words but also with power and with the holy Spirit, with ample conviction on our part (you know what we were to you, for your own good),

But you remember yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was no failure.

At Philippi, as you know, we had been ill-treated and insulted, but we took courage and confidence in our God to tell you the gospel of God in spite of all the strain.

no, God has attested our fitness to be entrusted with the gospel, and so we tell the gospel not to satisfy men but to satisfy the God who tests our hearts.

fain, in our yearning affection for you, to impart not only the gospel of God to you but our very souls as well ??you had so won our love.

We thank God constantly for this too, that when you received the word of the divine message from us, you took it not as a human word but for what it really is, the word of God. It proves effective in you believers,

by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!

(We did want to reach you ??I did, I Paul, more than once ??but Satan stopped us.)

For who is our hope, our joy, our crown of pride (who but you?) in the presence of our Lord Jesus on his arrival?

But when Timotheus reached me a moment ago, on his return from you, bringing me the good news of your faith and love and of how you always remember me kindly, longing to see me as I long to see you,

Finally, brothers, we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus to follow our instructions about the way you are to live so as to satisfy God; you are leading that life, but you are to excel in it still further.

God did not call us to be impure but to be consecrated;

hence, he who disregards this, disregards not man but the God who gave you his holy Spirit.

But, brothers, you are not in the darkness for the Day to surprise you like thieves;

Well then, we must not sleep like the rest of men, but be wakeful and sober;

but we must be sober, we who belong to the day, clad in faith and love as our coat of mail, with the hope of salvation as our helmet ??9 for God destined us not for Wrath but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

see that none of you pays back evil for evil, but always aim at what is kind to one another and to all the world;

but test them all, retaining what is good

They are proof positive of God's equity; you are suffering for the realm of God, and he means to make you worthy of it ??6 since God considers it but just to repay with trouble those who trouble you,

so that all may be doomed who refuse faith in the Truth but delight in evil.

But we are informed that some of your number are loafing, busybodies instead of busy.

You are not to treat him as an enemy, but to put him under discipline, as a brother.

doctors of the Law is what they want to be, but they have no idea either of the meaning of the words they use or of the themes on which they harp.

he must keep in mind that no law is ever made for honest people but for the lawless and the insubordinate, for the impious and the sinful, for the irreverent and the profane, for parricides and matricides, murderers,

but with good deeds (as befits women who make a religious profession).