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!

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.

But, on account of the false Brothers who had stolen in, the men who had crept in to spy upon the liberty which we have through union with Christ Jesus, in order to bring us back to slavery--

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.

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.

All distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female, have vanished; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one.

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.

I entreat you, Brothers, to become like me, as I became like you. You have never done me any wrong.

And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God--or Christ Jesus himself!

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.

It is always honorable to have your favor sought in an honorable cause, and not only when I am with you, my dear children--

You for whom I am again enduring a mother's pains, till a likeness to Christ shall have been formed in you.

You have severed yourselves from Christ--you who are seeking to be pronounced righteous through Law; you have fallen away from love.

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.

This is what I have to say--Let your steps be guided by the Spirit, and then you will never gratify the cravings of your earthly nature.

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.

And those who belong to Jesus, the Christ, have already crucified their earthly nature, with its passions and its cravings.