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Galatians 5
The Message
Galatians 5
The Message
The Life of Freedom
5 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.
4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
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19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Galatians 5
New International Version
Galatians 5
New International Version
Freedom in Christ
5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.(A) Stand firm,(B) then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.(C)
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised,(D) Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.(E) 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law(F) have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.(G) 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.(H) 6 For in Christ Jesus(I) neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.(J) The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.(K)
7 You were running a good race.(L) Who cut in on you(M) to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.(N) 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”(O) 10 I am confident(P) in the Lord that you will take no other view.(Q) The one who is throwing you into confusion,(R) whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?(S) In that case the offense(T) of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators,(U) I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.(V) But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a];(W) rather, serve one another(X) humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b](Y) 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,(Z) and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.(AA) 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.(AB) They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want.(AC) 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,(AD) you are not under the law.(AE)
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,(AF) impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.(AG) I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.(AH)
22 But the fruit(AI) of the Spirit is love,(AJ) joy, peace,(AK) forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.(AL) Against such things there is no law.(AM) 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh(AN) with its passions and desires.(AO) 25 Since we live by the Spirit,(AP) let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited,(AQ) provoking and envying each other.
Footnotes
- Galatians 5:13 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 16, 17, 19 and 24; and in 6:8.
- Galatians 5:14 Lev. 19:18
- Galatians 5:17 Or you do not do what
Gálatas 5
Nueva Versión Internacional
Gálatas 5
Nueva Versión Internacional
Libertad en Cristo
5 Cristo nos libertó para que vivamos en libertad. Por lo tanto, manténganse firmes[a] y no se sometan nuevamente al yugo de esclavitud.
2 Escuchen bien: yo, Pablo, les digo que, si se hacen circuncidar, Cristo no les servirá de nada. 3 De nuevo declaro que todo el que se hace circuncidar está obligado a practicar toda la Ley. 4 Aquellos de entre ustedes que tratan de ser justificados por la Ley han roto con Cristo; han caído de la gracia. 5 Nosotros, en cambio, por obra del Espíritu y mediante la fe, aguardamos con ansias la justicia que es nuestra esperanza. 6 En Cristo Jesús de nada sirve estar o no estar circuncidados; lo que vale es la fe que actúa mediante el amor.
7 Ustedes estaban corriendo bien. ¿Quién los estorbó para que dejaran de obedecer a la verdad? 8 Tal instigación no puede venir de Dios, que es quien los ha llamado.
9 «Un poco de levadura fermenta toda la masa». 10 Yo, por mi parte, tengo confianza en el Señor de que ustedes no pensarán de otra manera. El que los está perturbando será castigado, sea quien sea. 11 Hermanos, si es verdad que yo todavía predico la circuncisión, ¿por qué se me sigue persiguiendo? Si tal fuera mi predicación, la cruz no ofendería tanto. 12 ¡Ojalá que esos instigadores acabaran por mutilarse del todo!
13 Les hablo así, hermanos, porque ustedes han sido llamados a ser libres; pero no se valgan de esa libertad para dar rienda suelta a sus pasiones. Más bien sírvanse unos a otros con amor. 14 En efecto, toda la Ley se resume en un solo mandamiento: «Ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo».[b] 15 Pero si siguen mordiéndose y devorándose, tengan cuidado, no sea que acaben por destruirse unos a otros.
La vida por el Espíritu
16 Así que les digo: vivan por el Espíritu y no sigan los deseos de la carne; 17 porque esta desea lo que es contrario al Espíritu y a su vez el Espíritu desea lo que es contrario a ella. Los dos se oponen entre sí, de modo que ustedes no pueden hacer lo que quieren. 18 Pero si los guía el Espíritu, no están bajo la Ley.
19 Las obras de la carne se conocen bien: inmoralidad sexual, impureza y libertinaje; 20 idolatría y hechicería; odio, discordia, celos, arrebatos de ira, rivalidades, desacuerdos, sectarismos 21 y envidia; borracheras, orgías y otras cosas parecidas. Les advierto ahora, como antes lo hice, que los que practican tales cosas no heredarán el reino de Dios.
22 En cambio, el fruto del Espíritu es amor, alegría, paz, paciencia, amabilidad, bondad, fidelidad, 23 humildad y dominio propio. No hay ley que condene estas cosas. 24 Los que son de Cristo Jesús han crucificado la carne con sus pasiones y deseos. 25 Si el Espíritu nos da vida, andemos guiados por el Espíritu. 26 No dejemos que la vanidad nos lleve a provocarnos y a envidiarnos unos a otros.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
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Nueva Versión Internacional (NVI) 
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