Comfort in Time of Distress^[a]

The Lord Condemns Israel for Idol Worship

8 The Lord says, “Sound the alarm! Enemies are swooping down on my land like eagles! My people have broken the covenant I made with them and have rebelled against my teaching. ² Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me, ³ they have rejected what is good. Because of this their enemies will pursue them.

⁴ “My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols—for their own destruction. ⁵ I hate the gold bull worshiped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry? ⁶ An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshiped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces! ⁷ When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm! A field of grain that doesn't ripen can never produce any bread. But even if it did, foreigners would eat it up. ⁸ Israel has become like any other nation and is as useless as a broken pot. ⁹ Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria and have paid other nations to protect them. ¹⁰ But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

¹¹ “The more altars the people of Israel build for removing sin, the more places they have for sinning! ¹² I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign. ¹³ They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices.^[a] But I, the Lord, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

¹⁴ “The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities.”

² Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all. ³ Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law. ⁴ Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace. ⁵ As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith. ⁶ For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

⁷ You were doing so well! Who made you stop obeying the truth? How did he persuade you? ⁸ It was not done by God, who calls you. ^9 (A)“It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say. ¹⁰ But I still feel confident about you. Our life in union with the Lord makes me confident that you will not take a different view and that whoever is upsetting you will be punished by God.

¹¹ But as for me, my friends, if I continue to preach that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were true, then my preaching about the cross of Christ would cause no trouble. ¹² I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!

¹³ As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another. ^14 (B)For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

The Spirit and Human Nature

¹⁶ What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. ^17 (C)For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do. ¹⁸ If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

¹⁹ What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; ²⁰ in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; ²¹ they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

²² But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. ²⁵ The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. ²⁶ We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.