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.

which is really not another [gospel]; but there are [obviously] some [people masquerading as teachers] who are disturbing and confusing you [with a misleading, counterfeit teaching] and want to distort the gospel of Christ [twisting it into something which it absolutely is not].

For I want you to know, believers, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel [it is not a human invention, patterned after any human concept].

I want only to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Now, however, since you have come to know [the true] God [through personal experience], or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are turning back again to the weak and worthless elemental principles [of religions and philosophies], to which you want to be enslaved all over again?

I am afraid for you! I don't want my work for you to have been wasted!

These men [the Judaizers] eagerly seek you [to entrap you with honeyed words and attention, to win you over to their philosophy], not honorably [for their purpose is not honorable or worthy of consideration]. They want to isolate you [from us who oppose them] so that you will seek them.

Now, it is fine for someone to want to seek you out anytime, if it is for a good purpose, and not just when I am around [to be impressed].

Tell me, those of you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law?

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

For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that whatever you want, you may not do these [things].

But, if you are led by [what] the Holy Spirit [wants you to do], you are not under [obligation to meet the requirements of] the law of Moses.

Those who want to make a good impression in public [before the Jews] try to compel you to be circumcised, just so they will escape being persecuted for [faithfulness to] the cross of Christ.

For even the circumcised [Jews] themselves do not [really] keep the Law, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh [that is, in the fact that they convinced you to be circumcised].

But the last thing I want to do is brag [about such things]. For [if I had any bragging to do at all], it would be about [salvation through] the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is through Him that this [sinful] world has been crucified [i.e., died] as far as I am concerned and I have been crucified [i.e., died] as far as it is concerned.

For neither circumcision nor the want of it is of any importance, but only a new creation.