In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

For it is not myself but Christ Jesus that I am proclaiming as Lord; I am only a slave of yours for Jesus' sake.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, that is on the face of Christ.

For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body.

It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died,

So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so.

So if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new being; the old state of things has passed away; there is a new state of things.

All this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation??19 how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men's offenses against them, and intrusted me with the message of reconciliation.

It is for Christ, therefore, that I am an envoy, seeing that God makes his appeal through me. On Christ's behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God.

How can Christ agree with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.

So as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and comrade in my work for you, while these brothers of ours represent the churches, and are a credit to Christ.

The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others;

I appeal to you personally, by the gentleness and forbearance of Christ??he Paul who is so humble when face to face with you, but so bold in dealing with you when he is far away!

I destroy arguments and every obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, and I take captive every thought and make it obey Christ,

You look at things externally. If anyone is sure he belongs to Christ, let him think again and understand that I belong to Christ just as much as he.

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

I feel a divine jealousy about you, for I betrothed you to Christ, to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

By the truth of Christ that is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced anywhere in Greece.

Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is forever blessed, knows that I am telling the truth.

and he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for only where there is weakness is perfect strength developed." So I am perfectly willing to boast of all my weakness, so that the strength of Christ may shelter me.

That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ's sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

Have you been supposing all along that it is before you I have been defending myself? It is in the sight of God and as a follower of Christ that I have been speaking. But it is all to do you good, dear friends,

Those who have kept on in their old sins and all the rest I have warned, and I warn them now while I am still away, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will spare nobody??3 since you demand proof that Christ really speaks through me. He is not weak in dealing with you. On the contrary, right among you he exhibits his power.

It is yourselves you must test, to see whether you are holding to the faith. It is yourselves you must examine. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is within you? Unless you fail to stand the test!

The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the participation in the holy Spirit be with you all.

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

blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news??7 not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around.

Is that appealing to men's weaknesses, or to God? Is that trying to suit men? If I were still doing that, I would be no slave of Christ.

I did not receive it from any man, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again.

but who know that a man is not made upright by doing what the Law commands, but by faith in Christ Jesus??ven we believed in Christ Jesus, so as to be made upright by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands??or by doing what the Law commands no one can be made upright.

If through our efforts to be made upright through Christ, we have ourselves been proved as much "sinners" as the heathen, does that make Christ encourage sin? By no means.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. The life I am now living in the body I am living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I refuse to nullify the mercy of God. For if uprightness could be secured through law, then Christ died for nothing!

You senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when you had Jesus Christ shown crucified right before your eyes?

Christ ransomed us from the Law's curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree")

in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and his line. It does not say, "and to your lines," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your line," that is, Christ.

But the Scripture describes all mankind as the prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing might on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ be given to those who have faith.

So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through your faith.

For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is no room for "Jew" and "Greek"; there is no room for "slave" and "freeman"; there is no room for "male" and "female"; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of Abraham and his heirs under the promise.

and yet what must have tried you in my physical condition, you did not scorn and despise, but you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself.

my children??ou for whom I am enduring a mother's pains again, until Christ is formed in you.

This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

Why, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do nothing for you.

You people who propose to be made upright by law have finished with Christ; you have lost your hold upon God's favor.

For in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the want of it counts for anything, but only faith acting through love.

Those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the physical nature with its propensities and cravings.

Bear one another's burdens, and in that way carry out the law of the Christ.

These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ.

But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world.

The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are steadfast in Christ Jesus;

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.

He foreordained us to become his sons through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose,

He has given us perfect insight into his secret purpose and understanding of it, in following out the design he planned to carry out in Christ,

and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

to win praise for his glory, by having been the first to believe in Christ.

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself,

he exerted in raising Christ from the dead, and seating him at his right hand in heaven,

he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved.

And he raised us with Christ, and through our union with Christ Jesus made us sit down with him in heaven,

to show the incomparable wealth of his mercy throughout the ages to come by his goodness to us through Christ Jesus.

For he has made us, creating us through our union with Christ Jesus for the life of goodness which God had predestined us to live.

At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God's promise; with no hope and no God in all the world.

But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near.

You are built upon the apostles and prophets as your foundation, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

As you read that, you will be able to understand the insight I have into the secret of the Christ

that through union with Christ Jesus the heathen are fellow-heirs with the Jews, belong to the same body and share the promise with them, through the good news

To me, the very least of all his people, this favor has been given, of preaching to the heathen the inexhaustible wealth of the Christ,

fulfilling the eternal purpose which God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and through your faith to let Christ in his love make his home in your hearts. Your roots must be deep and your foundations strong,

and to understand Christ's love, so far beyond our understanding, so that you may be filled with the very fulness of God.

be glory through the church and through Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen.

But each one of us has been given mercy in Christ's generous measure.

in order to fit his people for the work of service, for building the body of Christ,

until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ.

That is not the way you have been taught what Christ means,

You must be kind to one another, you must be tender-hearted, and forgive one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

For you may be sure that no one who is immoral, or greedy for gain (for that is idolatry) can have any share in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

So it says, "Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, And Christ will dawn upon you!"

always give thanks for everything to God our Father, as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and subordinate yourselves to one another out of reverence to Christ.

for a husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, which is his body, and is saved by him.

Just as the church is in subjection to Christ, so married women must be, in everything, to their husbands.

You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her,

for no one ever hates his own person, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ does with the church,

This is a great secret, but I understand it of Christ and the church.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.