Chapter 5

   Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery.  

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   Remember that it is I Paul who tell you that if you receive circumcision Christ will avail you nothing.  

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   I once more protest to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to obey the whole Law of Moses.  

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   Christ has become nothing to any of you who are seeking acceptance with God through the Law: you have fallen away from grace.  

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   *We* have not, for through the Spirit we wait with longing hope for an acceptance with God which is to come through faith.  

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   For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any importance; but only faith working through love.  

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   You were running the race nobly! Who has interfered and caused you to swerve from the truth?  

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   No such teaching ever proceeded from Him who is calling you.  

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   A little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough.  

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   For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man--be he who he may--who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him.  

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   As for me, brethren, if I am still a preacher of circumcision, how is it that I am still suffering persecution? In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block!  

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   Would to God that those who are unsettling your faith would even mutilate themselves.  

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   You however, brethren, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an excuse for giving way to your lower natures; but become bondservants to one another in a spirit of love.  

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   For the entire Law has been obeyed when you have kept the single precept, which says, 'You are to love your fellow man equally with yourself.'  

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   But if you are perpetually snarling and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another.  

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   This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures.  

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   For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined.  

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   But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not subject to Law.  

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   Now you know full well the doings of our lower natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery;  

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   enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of passion, intrigues, dissensions, factions, envyings;  

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   hard drinking, riotous feasting, and the like. And as to these I forewarn you, as I have already forewarned you, that those who are guilty of such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.  

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   The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence;  

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   good faith, meekness, self-restraint.  

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   Against such things as these there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their lower nature with its passions and appetites.  

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   If we are living by the Spirit's power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power.  

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   Let us not become vain-glorious, challenging one another, envying one another.  

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