and that upon re-visiting you I may be humbled by my God in your presence, and may have to mourn over many whose hearts still cling to their old sins, and who have not repented of the impurity, fornication, and gross sensuality, of which they have been guilty.

This intended visit of mine is my third visit to you. "On the evidence of two or three witnesses every charge shall be sustained."

since you want a practical proof of the fact that Christ speaks by my lips--He who is not feeble towards you, but powerful among you.

For though it is true that He was crucified through weakness, yet He now lives through the power of God. We also are weak, sharing His weakness, but with Him we shall be full of life to deal with you through the power of God.

And our prayer to God is that you may do nothing wrong; not in order that our sincerity may be demonstrated, but that you may do what is right, even though our sincerity may seem to be doubtful.

Finally, brethren, be joyful, secure perfection of character, take courage, be of one mind, live in peace. And then God who gives love and peace will be with you.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Paul, an Apostle sent not from men nor by any man, but by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from among the dead--

May grace and peace be granted to you from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

To Him be the glory to the Ages of the Ages! Amen.

I marvel that you are so readily leaving Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are adhering to a different Good News.

But if even we or an angel from Heaven should bring you a Good News different from that which we have already brought you, let him be accursed.

What I have just said I repeat--if any one is preaching to you a Good News other than that which you originally received, let him be accursed.

For is it man's favour or God's that I aspire to? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still a man-pleaser, I should not be Christ's bondservant.

For I must tell you, brethren, that the Good News which was proclaimed by me is not such as man approves of.

For, in fact, it was not from man that I received or learnt it, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

But when He who set me apart even from my birth, and called me by His grace,

I went up in obedience to a revelation of God's will; and I explained to them the Good News which I proclaim among the Gentiles. To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

and when they perceived the mission which was graciously entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, Peter, and John, who were considered to be the pillars of the Church)

And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness.

You and I, though we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,

know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt.

for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live to God.

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to reach perfection through what is external?

And the Scripture, foreseeing that in consequence of faith God would declare the nations to be free from guilt, sent beforehand the Good News to Abraham, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with God simply by obeying the Law, because "the righteous shall live by faith,"

and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches that "he who does these things shall live by doing them."

Christ has purchased our freedom from the curse of the Law by becoming accursed for us--because "Cursed is every one who is hanged upon a tree."

Brethren, even a covenant made by a man--to borrow an illustration from daily life--when once formally sanctioned is not liable to be set aside or added to.

I mean that the Covenant which God had already formally made is not abrogated by the Law which was given four hundred and thirty years later--so as to annul the promise.

Why then was the Law given? It was imposed later on for the sake of defining sin, until the seed should come to whom God had made the promise; and its details were laid down by a mediator with the help of angels.

But there cannot be a mediator where only one individual is concerned.

God, however, is only one. Is the Law then opposed to the promises of God? No, indeed; for if a Law had been given which could have conferred Life, righteousness would certainly have come by the Law.

But Scripture has shown that all mankind are the prisoners of sin, in order that the promised blessing, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who believe.

Before this faith came, we Jews were perpetual prisoners under the Law, living under restraints and limitations in preparation for the faith which was soon to be revealed.

So that the Law has acted the part of a tutor-slave to lead us to Christ, in order that through faith we may be declared to be free from guilt.

Now, however, having come to know God--or rather to be known by Him--how is it you are again turning back to weak and worthless rudimentary notions to which you are once more willing to be enslaved?

Can it be that I have become your enemy through speaking the truth to you?

These men pay court to you, but not with honourable motives. They want to exclude you, so that you may pay court to them.

It is always an honourable thing to be courted in an honourable cause; always, and not only when I am with you, my children--

Tell me--you who want to continue to be subject to Law--will you not listen to the Law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl and one by the free woman.

Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery.

For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man--be he who he may--who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him.

As for me, brethren, if I am still a preacher of circumcision, how is it that I am still suffering persecution? In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block!

But if you are perpetually snarling and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another.

This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures.

If we are living by the Spirit's power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power.

Brethren, if anybody be detected in any misconduct, you who are spiritual should restore such a one in a spirit of meekness. And let each of you keep watch over himself, lest he also fall into temptation.

For if there is any one who thinks himself to be somebody when he is nobody, he is deluding himself.

Do not deceive yourselves. God is not to be scoffed at. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

And all who shall regulate their lives by this principle--may peace and mercy be given to them--and to the true Israel of God.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits, brethren. Amen.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God: To God's people who are in Ephesus--believers in Christ Jesus.

May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has crowned us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ;

even as, in His love, He chose us as His own in Christ before the creation of the world, that we might be holy and without blemish in His presence.

For He pre-destined us to be adopted by Himself as sons through Jesus Christ--such being His gracious will and pleasure--

so that we should be devoted to the extolling of His glorious attributes--we who were the first to fix our hopes on Christ.

that Spirit being a pledge and foretaste of our inheritance, in anticipation of its full redemption--the inheritance which He has purchased to be specially His for the extolling of His glory.

when He displayed it in Christ by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenly realms,

Among them all of us also formerly passed our lives, governed by the inclinations of our lower natures, indulging the cravings of those natures and of our own thoughts, and were in our original state deserving of anger like all others.

caused us, dead though we were through our offences, to live with Christ--it is by grace that you have been saved--

in order that, by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus, He might display in the Ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace.

For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves. It is God's gift, and is not on the ground of merit--

so that it may be impossible for any one to boast.

Therefore, do not forget that formerly you were Gentiles as to your bodily condition. You were called the Uncircumcision by those who style themselves the Circumcised--their circumcision being one which the knife has effected.

At that time you were living apart from Christ, estranged from the Commonwealth of Israel, with no share by birth in the Covenants which are based on the Promises, and you had no hope and no God, in all the world.

by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man,

thus effecting peace, and to reconcile Jews and Gentiles in one body to God, by means of His cross--slaying by it their mutual enmity.

and that by a revelation the truth hitherto kept secret was made known to me as I have already briefly explained it to you.

By means of that explanation, as you read it, you can judge of my insight into the truth of Christ

concealed in order that the Church might now be used to display to the powers and authorities in the heavenly realms the innumerable aspects of God's wisdom.

to grant you--in accordance with the wealth of His glorious perfections--to be strengthened by His Spirit with power penetrating to your inmost being.

as it is grasped by all God's people, of the breadth and length, the height and depth--

yes, to attain to a knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, so that you may be made complete in accordance with God's own standard of completeness.

to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, world without end! Amen.

in the uniting bond of peace, the unity given by the Spirit.

And He Himself appointed some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers,

So we shall no longer be babes nor shall we resemble mariners tossed on the waves and carried about with every changing wind of doctrine according to men's cleverness and unscrupulous cunning, making use of every shifting device to mislead.

Dependent on Him, the whole body--its various parts closely fitting and firmly adhering to one another-- grows by the aid of every contributory link, with power proportioned to the need of each individual part, so as to build itself up in a spirit of love.

with darkened understandings, having by reason of the ignorance which is deep-seated in them and the insensibility of their moral nature, no share in the Life which God gives.

Let no unwholesome words ever pass your lips, but let all your words be good for benefiting others according to the need of the moment, so that they may be a means of blessing to the hearers.

Let all bitterness and all passionate feeling, all anger and loud insulting language, be unknown among you--and also every kind of malice.

On the contrary learn to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children.

But fornication and every kind of impurity, or covetousness, let them not even be mentioned among you, for they ought not to be named among God's people.

For be well assured that no fornicator or immoral person and no money-grubber--or in other words idol-worshipper--has any share awaiting him in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

for the things which are done by these people in secret it is disgraceful even to speak of.

But everything can be tested by the light and thus be shown in its true colors; for whatever shines of itself is light.

Therefore be very careful how you live and act. Let it not be as unwise men, but as wise.

Buy up your opportunities, for these are evil times.

Always and for everything let your thanks to God the Father be presented in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

And just as the Church submits to Christ, so also married women should be entirely submissive to their husbands.

in order to make her holy, cleansing her with the baptismal water by the word,

that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any other defect, but to be holy and unblemished.

"For this reason a man is to leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be as one."

Children, be obedient to your parents as a Christian duty, for it is a duty.

"so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth."

Slaves, be obedient to your earthly masters, with respect and eager anxiety to please and with simplicity of motive as if you were obeying Christ.