Sons and Heirs
4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,1 though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is wunder guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were xenslaved to the yelementary principles2 of the world. 4 But when the zfullness of time had come, God asent forth his Son, bborn cof woman, born dunder the law, 5 to eredeem those who were funder the law, so that we might receive gadoption as sons. 6 And hbecause you are sons, God has sent the iSpirit of his Son jinto our hearts, crying, k“Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and lif a son, then an mheir through God.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8 nFormerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are onot gods. 9 pBut now that you have come to qknow God, or rather to be rknown by God, how can you turn back again to the sweak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 tYou observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you uin vain.
12 Brothers,3 I entreat you, vbecome as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a wbodily ailment that xI preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, yas Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your zeyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the atruth?4 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, bfor whom I am again cin the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed din you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Example of Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, eone by a slave woman and fone by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while gthe son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted hallegorically: these women are itwo covenants. jOne is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for kslavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;5 she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But lthe Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
m“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you,6 brothers, like Isaac, are nchildren of promise. 29 But just as at that time ohe who was born according to the flesh ppersecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, qso also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? r“Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but sof the free woman.
Christ Has Set Us Free
5 For freedom Christ has set us tfree; ustand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a vyoke of wslavery.
2 xLook: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to yevery man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified1 by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by zfaith, we ourselves eagerly await for the bhope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus cneither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
7 You were drunning well. eWho hindered you from obeying the ftruth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 gA little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 hI have confidence in the Lord that iyou will take no other view, and the one who is jtroubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers,2 still preach3 circumcision, kwhy am I still being persecuted? In that case the loffense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would memasculate themselves!
13 For you were called to nfreedom, brothers. oOnly do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love pserve one another. 14 For qthe whole law is fulfilled in one word: r“You shall slove your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Keep in Step with the Spirit
16 But I say, twalk by the Spirit, and you will unot gratify the vdesires of the flesh. 17 For wthe desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, xto keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are yled by the zSpirit, you are anot under the law. 19 Now bthe works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,4 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that cthose who do5 such things dwill not einherit the kingdom of God. 22 But fthe fruit of the Spirit is glove, hjoy, ipeace, jpatience, kkindness, lgoodness, mfaithfulness, 23 ngentleness, oself-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And pthose who qbelong to Christ Jesus have rcrucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become sconceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Bear One Another’s Burdens
6 Brothers,1 tif anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him uin a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 vBear one another’s burdens, wand so fulfill the xlaw of Christ. 3 yFor if anyone zthinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But alet each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 bLet the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for cwhatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And dlet us not grow weary eof doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not fgive up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, glet us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the hhousehold of faith.
Final Warning and Benediction
11 iSee with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would jforce you to be circumcised, and only kin order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised ldo not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast mexcept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which2 the world has been crucified to me, and nI to the world. 15 oFor neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a pnew creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon qthe Israel of God.
17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Ephesians
Greeting
1 Paul, an aapostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in bEphesus, and are cfaithful1 in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 dBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the eheavenly places, 4 feven as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be gholy and blameless before him. In love 5 he hpredestined us2 for iadoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the jpurpose of his will, 6 kto the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the lBeloved. 7 In him we have mredemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our ntrespasses, according to the oriches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in pall wisdom and insight 9 making known3 to us the qmystery of his will, according to his purpose, which rhe set forth in Christ4 10 as a plan for the sfullness of time, tto unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
11 In him we have obtained an uinheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you vheard the wword of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were xsealed with ythe promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the zguarantee5 of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,6 to the praise of his glory.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
15 For this reason, because aI have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love7 toward all the saints, 16 bI do cnot cease to give thanks for you, dremembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you ethe Spirit of wisdom and of frevelation in the gknowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts henlightened, that you may know what is ithe hope to which jhe has called you, what are the kriches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, laccording to the working of his great mmight 20 that he worked in Christ when nhe raised him from the dead and oseated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 pfar qabove all rule and authority and power and dominion, and rabove every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he sput tall things under his feet and gave him as uhead over all things to the church, 23 which is his vbody, the wfullness of him who xfills all in all.
By Grace Through Faith
2 And you were ydead in the trespasses and sins 2 zin which ayou once walked, following the course1 of this world, following the bprince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the csons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the dpassions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.2 4 But3 God, being rich in emercy, fbecause of the great love with which he loved us, 5 geven when we were dead in our trespasses, hmade us alive together with Christ—iby grace you have been saved— 6 and jraised us up with him and seated us with him in the kheavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable lriches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For mby grace you have been saved nthrough faith. And this is onot your own doing; it is the pgift of God, 9 qnot a result of works, rso that no one may sboast. 10 For we are his tworkmanship, ucreated in Christ Jesus for good works, vwhich God prepared beforehand, that we should wwalk in them.
One in Christ
11 Therefore remember that xat one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called ythe circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, zalienated from the commonwealth of Israel and astrangers to bthe covenants of cpromise, dhaving no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus eyou who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our fpeace, who has made us both gone and has broken down hin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 iby abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might jreconcile us both to God kin one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and lpreached mpeace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have naccess in oone Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,4 but you are pfellow citizens with the saints and members of the qhousehold of God, 20 rbuilt on the sfoundation of the tapostles and prophets, uChrist Jesus himself being the vcornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, wbeing joined together, grows into a xholy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being ybuilt together into a zdwelling place for God by5 the Spirit.
