1 This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.
2 Here is what I am saying to you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do you no good.
3 I again insist that if any man lets himself be circumcised, he is under obligation to obey the whole law.
4 You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.
5 For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us.
6 For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.
7 You were running beautifully! Who was it that cut into your way and kept you from obeying the truth?
8 Such persuasion never came from Him who called you.
9 A little yeast will transform the whole dough.
10 By our union with the Lord I have confidence in you that you will take no other view of the matter. The man who is unsettling you will certainly pay the penalty for it, no matter who it turns out to be.
11 As for me, myself, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In such a case the hindrance done by the cross has presumably ceased!
12 I almost wish that these men who are upsetting you would go all the way, and have themselves mutilated.
13 For you, brothers, were called to freedom; only you must not let your freedom be an excuse for the gratification of your lower nature, but in love be slaves to one another.
14 For the whole law is summed up in one saying, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."
15 But if you continue to bite and eat one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another.
16 I mean this: Practice living by the Spirit and then by no means will you gratify the cravings of your lower nature.
17 For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please.
18 But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.
19 Now the practices of the lower nature are clear enough: Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarreling, jealousy, anger, intrigues, dissensions, party-spirit,
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I now warn you, as I have done before, that those who practice such things shall not be heirs of the kingdom of God.
22 But the product of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. There is no law against such things.
24 And those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the lower nature with its passions and evil cravings.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk where the Spirit leads.
26 Let us stop being ambitious for honors, so challenging one another, envying one another.