³ Are you so foolish? ^(A)Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by ^(B)the flesh?

^4 (A)You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; ^(B)you have fallen from grace. ⁵ For we through the Spirit eagerly ^(C)wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. ⁶ For ^(D)in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but ^(E)faith working through love.

Love Fulfills the Law

⁷ You ^(F)ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? ⁸ This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.

⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, ^(A)and if a son, then an heir ^[a]of God ^[b]through Christ.

Fears for the Church

⁸ But then, indeed, ^(B)when you did not know God, ^(C)you served those which by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now ^(D)after you have known God, or rather are known by God, ^(E)how is it that you turn again to ^(F)the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? ^10 (G)You observe days and months and seasons and years.

¹⁶ who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. ¹⁷ For ^[a]He testifies:

¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of ^(B)its weakness and unprofitableness, ¹⁹ for ^(C)the law made nothing ^[b]perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of ^(D)a better hope, through which ^(E)we draw near to God.

⁹ It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered ^(A)which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— ¹⁰ concerned only with ^(B)foods and drinks, ^(C)various ^[a]washings, ^(D)and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.