Galatians, 5

1. Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.

2. I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.

3. I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;

4. once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.

5. We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,

6. since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.

7. You began your race well; who came to obstruct you and stop you obeying the truth?

8. It was certainly not any prompting from him who called you!

9. A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.

10. But I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will not be led astray, and that anyone who makes trouble with you will be condemned, no matter who he is.

11. And I, brothers -- if I were still preaching circumcision, why should I still be persecuted? For then the obstacle which is the cross would have no point any more.

12. I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and mutilate themselves.

13. After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love,

14. since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

15. If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.

16. Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.

17. The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.

18. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

19. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality,

20. the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements,

21. factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22. On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,

23. gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.

24. All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.

25. Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit

26. and let us not be conceited or provocative and envious of one another.