and no wonder; for satan himself may put on the appearance of an angel of light.

I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.

What I am saying, not according to the Lord, am I saying, but as in foolishness, - in this my boastful confidence!

To my shame, I must say, we have been too weak [in comparison to those pseudo-apostles who take advantage of you].But in whatever anyone else dares to boast—I am speaking foolishly—I also dare to boast.

Are they servants of Christ?
I’m talking like a madman—I’m a better one:
with far more labors,
many more imprisonments,
far worse beatings, near death many times.

Five times the Jews gave me forty blows but one.

in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

Who is weak without me being weak, too? Who is caused to stumble without me becoming indignant?

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

How he was taken up into Paradise, and words came to his ears which may not be said, and which man is not able to say.

On behalf of such a one will I glory: but on mine own behalf I will not glory, save in my weaknesses.

For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I am well pleased with infirmities, with injuries, with necessities, with persecutions, with distresses for Christ; for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

For indeed the signs of the apostleship are wrought in me in all patience, in miracles and in wonders and in dynamites.

For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

This is now the third time that I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a trouble to you: my desire is for you, not for your property: for it is not the children's business to make store for their fathers, but the fathers for the children.

And as for me, most gladly will I spend all I have and be utterly spent for your salvation.

But be that as it may, I did not burden you [with my support]. But [some say that] I was sly and took you by trickery.

Did I make something out of you by any of my messengers?

It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit.

for I fear lest, having come, not such as I wish I may find you, and I -- I may be found by you such as ye do not wish, lest there be strifes, envyings, wraths, revelries, evil-speakings, whisperings, puffings up, insurrections,

And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

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

I have already warned those who have sinned in the past and all the rest as well, and I warn them now even though I am absent [from you] as I did when I was with you the second time, that if I come back I will not spare anyone,

Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

Put yourselves to the proof, not me; test yourselves, to see if you are in the faith. Do you not understand that Christ Jesus is within you? Otherwise you must be failures.

But it is my hope that you will have no doubt that we are truly Christ's.

Now we pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do that which is honorable, though we be as reprobate.

For we rejoice when we may be weak and ye may be powerful. But this also we pray for, your perfecting.

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

Let this be my last word, brothers; be glad; be complete; be comforted; be of the same mind; be at peace with one another: and the God of love and peace will be with you.

All the saints salute you. May the favor of the Lord Jesus Christ,

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 ??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;

And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

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

to whom [may there] be honor forever and ever. May it be so.

from me, who called you by the grace of Christ; this can be

but even if we or a messenger out of heaven may proclaim good news to you different from what we did proclaim to you -- anathema let him be!

as we have said before, and now say again, If any one to you may proclaim good news different from what ye did receive -- anathema let him be!

Am I now using arguments to men, or God? or is it my desire to give men pleasure? if I was still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.

And the churches of Judaea which were in Christ still had no knowledge of my face or person:

They had only heard it said about me, "This person, who had once persecuted us [Christians], is now preaching the faith he once made havoc of."

And they glorified God in me.

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

I went up [to Jerusalem] because of a [divine] revelation, and I put before them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so in private before those of reputation, for fear that I might be running or had run [the course of my ministry] in vain.

But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

My concern was because of the false brothers [those people masquerading as Christians] who had been secretly smuggled in [to the community of believers]. They had slipped in to spy on the freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us back into bondage [under the Law of Moses].

to whom I rendered not submission for an hour; in order that the truth of the gospel may abide with you.

But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Only they urged that we should remember their poor--a thing which was uppermost in my own mind.

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 knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, if not by faith in Jesus Christ, and we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law {no human being will be justified}.

But if [while] seeking to be justified by Christ, [we] ourselves also have been found [to be] sinners, then [is] Christ an agent of sin? May it never be!

For if I try to build up again what I had already destroyed [i.e., by returning to depend on compliance with the law of Moses to become right with God, after having rejected this system by trusting in Christ to save me], I would certainly be guilty of sin.

For I, through law, have died to law, that I may live to God.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

This is all I want to ask of you: did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying [the requirements of] the Law, or was it the result of hearing [the message of salvation and] with faith [believing it]?

that to the nations the blessing of Abraham may come in Christ Jesus, that the promise of the Spirit we may receive through the faith.

Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified.

This is what I mean: the Law, which came into existence four hundred and thirty years later [after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah], does not and cannot invalidate the covenant previously established by God, so as to abolish the promise.

Therefore [is] the law opposed to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law.

but the Writing did shut up the whole under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ may be given to those believing.

so that the law became our child-conductor -- to Christ, that by faith we may be declared righteous,

My point is this--As long as the heir is under age, there is no difference between him and a slave, though he is master of the whole estate.

that those under law he may redeem, that the adoption of sons we may receive;

I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

but you knew I preached the gospel to you on my former [visit] in weakness of the flesh,

And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them.

and it is good to be zealously regarded, in what is good, at all times, and not only in my being present with you;

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Which things, indeed, may bear another meaning; for, the same, are two covenants, - one, indeed, from Mount Sinai, into bondage, bringing forth, the which is Hagar, -

Now we, my brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.

but what saith the Writing? 'Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;'

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

The Messiah has set us free so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. So keep on standing firm in it, and stop putting yourselves under the yoke of slavery again.

Behold I Paul say unto you, that, if you may be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.