I admit, to my shame, that we have been weak. But whatever the subject on which others are not afraid to boast--though it is foolish to say so--I am not afraid either!

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus--he who is for ever blessed--knows that I am speaking the truth.

When I was in Damascus, the Governor under King Aretas had the gates of that city guarded, so as to arrest me,

And I know that this man--whether in the body or separated from the body I do not know; God knows--

It was for this reason, and to prevent my thinking too highly of myself, that a thorn was sent to pierce my flesh--an instrument of Satan to discipline me--so that I should not think too highly of myself.

About this I three times entreated the Lord, praying that it might leave me.

But his reply has been-- 'My help is enough for you; for my strength attains its perfection in the midst of weakness.' Most gladly, then, will I boast all the more of my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Christ may overshadow me.

That is why I delight in weakness, ill-treatment, hardship, persecution, and difficulties, when borne for Christ. For, when I am weak, then it is that I am strong!

In what respect, I ask, were you treated worse than the other Churches, unless it was that, for my part, I refused to become a burden to you? Forgive me the wrong I thus did you!

Remember, this is the third time that I have made every preparation to come to see you, and I shall refuse to be a burden to you; I want, not your money, but you. It is not the duty of children to put by for their parents, but of parents to put by for their children.

For my part, I will most gladly spend, and be spent, for your welfare. Can it be that the more intensely I love you the less I am to be loved?

You will admit that I was not a burden to you but you say that I was "crafty" and caught you "by a trick"!

Do you assert that I took advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you?

Have you all this time been fancying that it is to you that we are making our defense? No, it is in the sight of God, and in union with Christ, that we are speaking. And all this, dear friends, is to build up your characters;

For I am afraid that perhaps, when I come, I may find that you are not what I want you to be, and, on the other hand, that you may find that I am what you do not want me to be. I am afraid that I may find quarreling, jealousy, ill-feeling, rivalry, slandering, back-biting, self-assertion, and disorder.

I am afraid lest, on my next visit, my God may humble me in regard to you, and that I may have to mourn over many who have long been sinning, and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality, in which they have indulged.

I have said it, and I say it again before I come, just as if I were with you on my second visit, though for the moment absent, I say to those who have been long sinning, as well as to all others--that if I come again, I shall spare no one.

And that will be the proof, which you are looking for, that the Christ speaks through me. There is no weakness in his dealings with you. No, he shows his power among you.

Put yourselves to the proof, to see whether you are holding to the Faith. Test yourselves. Surely you recognize this fact about yourselves--that Jesus Christ is in you! Unless indeed you cannot stand the test!

But I hope that you will recognize that we can stand the test.

We pray God that you may do nothing wrong, not that we may be seen to stand the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may seem not to stand the test.

We are glad when we are weak, if you are strong. And what we pray for is that you may become perfect.

This is my reason for writing as I am now doing, while I am away from you, so that, when I am with you, I may not act harshly in the exercise of the authority which the Lord gave me--and gave me for building up and not for pulling down.

Which is really no Good News at all. But then, I know that there are people who are harassing you, and who want to pervert the Good News of the Christ.

Yet even if we--or if an angel from Heaven were to tell you any other 'Good News' than that which we told you, may he be accursed!

We have said it before, and I repeat it now--If any one tells you a 'Good News' other than that which you received, may he be accursed!

I would remind you, Brothers, that the Good News which I told is no mere human invention.

Saw fit to reveal his Son in me, so that I might tell the Good News of him among the Gentiles, then at once, instead of consulting any human being,

(As to what I am now writing to you, I call God to witness that I am speaking the truth).

All that they had heard was--'The man who once persecuted us is now telling the Good News of the very Faith of which he once made havoc.'

It was in obedience to a revelation that I went; and I laid before the Apostles the Good News that I am proclaiming among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those who are thought highly of, for fear that I might possibly be taking, or might have already taken, a course which would prove useless.

Why, we did not for a moment yield submission to them, that the Truth of the Good News might be yours always!

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been for the Jews.

Recognizing the charge entrusted to me, James, Peter, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the Church, openly acknowledged Barnabas and me as fellow-workers, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

The rest of the Jewish converts were guilty of the same hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led away by it.

But, when I saw that they were not dealing straightforwardly with the Truth of the Good News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you, who were born a Jew, adopt Gentile customs, instead of Jewish, why are you trying to compel the Gentile converts to adopt Jewish customs?"

We, though we are Jews by birth and not outcasts of Gentile origin, know that no one is pronounced righteous as the result of obedience to Law, but only through faith in Christ Jesus.

So we placed our faith in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be pronounced righteous, as the result of faith in Christ, and not of obedience to Law; for such obedience 'will not result in even one soul's being pronounced righteous.'

If, while seeking to be pronounced righteous through union with Christ, we were ourselves seen to be outcasts, would that make Christ an agent of sin? Heaven forbid!

For, if I rebuild the very things that I pulled down, I prove myself to have done wrong.

I have been crucified with Christ. So it is no longer I that live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and, as for my present earthly life, I am living it by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Here is the one thing that I want to find out from you--Did you receive the Spirit as the result of obedience to Law, or of your having listened with faith?

You see, then, that those whose lives are based on faith are the Sons of Abraham.

And Scripture, foreseeing that God would pronounce the Gentiles righteous as the result of faith, foretold the Good News to Abraham in the words--'Through thee all the Gentiles shall be blessed.'

All who rely upon obedience to Law are under a curse, for Scripture says--'Cursed is every one who does not abide by all that is written in the Book of the Law, and do it.'

Again, it is evident that no one is pronounced righteous before God through Law, for we read--'Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.'

And this he did that the blessing given to Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through their union with Jesus Christ; that so, through our faith, we also might receive the promised gift of the Spirit.

Now it was to Abraham that the promises were made, 'and to his offspring.' It was not said 'to his offsprings,' as if many persons were meant, but the words were 'to thy offspring,' showing that one person was meant--and that was Christ.

What, then, you ask, was the use of the Law? It was a later addition, to make men conscious of their wrong-doings, and intended to last only till the coming of that 'offspring' to whom the promise had been made; and it was delivered through angels by a mediator.

Does that set the Law in opposition to God's promises? Heaven forbid! For, if a Law had been given capable of bestowing Life, then righteousness would have actually owed its existence to Law.

But the words of Scripture represent the whole world as being in bondage to sin, so that the promised blessing, dependent, as it is, upon faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who have faith in him.

Before the coming of faith, we were kept under the guard of the Law, in bondage, awaiting the Faith that was destined to be revealed.

Thus the Law has proved a guide to lead us to Christ, in order that we may be pronounced righteous as the result of faith.

But now that faith has come we no longer need a guide.

And, since you belong to Christ, it follows that you are Abraham's offspring and, under the promise, sharers in the inheritance.

To ransom those who were subject to Law, so that we might take our position as sons.

And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry--'Abba, our Father.'

But now that you have found God--or, rather, have been found by him--how is it that you are turning back to that poor and feeble puerile teaching, to which yet once again you are wanting to become slaves?

You make me fear that the labor which I have spent on you may have been wasted.

You remember that it was owing to bodily infirmity that on the first occasion I told you the Good News.

What has become then, of your blessings? For I can bear witness that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me!

Am I to think, then, that I have become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Certain people are seeking your favor, but with no honorable object. No, indeed, they want to isolate you, so that you will have to seek their favor.

Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman.

Yet at that time the child born in the course of nature persecuted the child born by the power of the Spirit; and it is the same now.

It is for freedom that Christ set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not again be held under the yoke of slavery.

Understand that I, Paul, myself tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will avail you nothing.

I again declare to every one who receives circumcision, that he binds himself to obey the whole Law.

For we, by the help of the Spirit, are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of our hope--that we may be pronounced righteous as the result of faith.

I, through my union with the Lord, am persuaded that you will learn to think with me. But the man who is disturbing your minds will have to bear his punishment, whoever he may be.

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.

But, if you are continually wounding and preying upon one another, take care that you are not destroyed by one another.

For these cravings of our earthly nature conflict with the Spirit, and the Spirit with our earthly nature--they are two contrary principles--so that you cannot do what you wish.

Feelings of envy, drunkenness, revelry, and the like. And I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who indulge in such things will have no place in the Kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. What a man sows that he will reap.

For he who sows the field of his earthly nature will from that earthly nature reap corruption; while he who sows the field of the spirit will from that spirit reap Immortal Life.

Even these men who are circumcised do not themselves keep the Law; yet they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast of your observance of the rite.

For he chose us in our union with Christ before the creation of the universe, that we might be holy and blameless in his sight, living in the spirit of love.

And so to enhance that glorious manifestation of his loving- kindness which he gave us in The Beloved;

In view of that Divine Order which was to mark the completion of the ages, when he should make everything, both in Heaven and on earth, center in him.

In him, I say, for by our union with him we became God's Heritage, having from the first been destined for this in the intention of him who, in all that happens, is carrying out his own fixed purpose;

That we should enhance his glory--we who have been the first to rest our hopes on the Christ.

My prayer is that the God of Jesus Christ our Lord, the all- glorious Father, may inspire you with wisdom and true insight through a fuller knowledge of himself;

That your minds may be so enlightened that you may realize the hope given by God's Call, the wealth of the glory of his heritage among Christ's People,

And above every name that can be named, whether in the present age, or in the age to come.

And it was among them that we all once lived our lives, indulging the cravings of our earthly nature, and carrying out the desires prompted by that earthly nature and by our own thoughts. Our very nature exposed us to the Divine Wrath, like the rest of mankind.

In order that, by his goodness to us in Christ Jesus, he might display in the ages to come the boundless wealth of his loving- kindness.

For it is by God's loving-kindness that you have been saved, through your faith. It is not due to yourselves; the gift is God's.

For we are God's handiwork, created, by our union with Christ Jesus, for the good actions in doing which God had pre-arranged that we should spend our lives.

Remember, therefore, that you were once Gentiles yourselves, as your bodies showed; you were called 'The Uncircumcised' by those who were called 'The Circumcised'--circumcised only by the hand of man!

Remember that you were at that time far from Christ; you were shut out from the citizenship of Israel; you were strangers to the Covenants founded on God's Promise; you were in the world without hope and without God.

He it is who is our Peace. He made the two divisions of mankind one, broke down the barrier that separated them,

For it is through him that we, the Jews and the Gentiles, united in the one Spirit, are now able to approach the Father.

It follows, then, that you are no longer strangers and aliens, but are fellow-citizens with Christ's People and members of God's Household.

And also that it was by direct revelation that the hidden purpose of God was made known to me, as I have already briefly told you.

That, by union with Christ Jesus and through the Good News, the Gentiles are co-heirs with us and members of one Body, and that they share with us in God's Promise.

And to make clear what is God's way of working out that hidden purpose which from the first has been concealed in the mind of the Creator of all things;

So that now to the Archangels and to all the Powers on high should be made known, through the Church, the all-embracing wisdom of God,

In accordance with that purpose which runs through all the ages and which he has now accomplished in Jesus, the Christ, our Master.