Beginning
4 Here is what I mean. When a man dies, his son is to receive his property. As long as the son is not grown up, he cannot have it. He has no more right than a servant, even though he really owns all the property.
2 He still has people who take care of him and he must obey them until the time set by his father.
3 So it is with us. Before we were grown up, we were like servants. We were just beginning to learn about the things of this world.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son to make us free. He was born by a woman during the time when men had to obey the law.
5 God sent him to set the people free who were under the law. God sent him so that we would receive our rights as sons of God.
6 Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit calls out, `Father!'
7 So then, because of what God has done, you are no longer a slave but you are a son. And because you are a son, you will receive what he promised.
8 At first, you did not know God. At that time you obeyed things which are not real gods.
9 But now you know God. That is, God knows you. Then why do you turn to things that are weak and can do no good? Do you want to obey them again?
10 You have holy days, holy months, holy seasons, and holy years.
11 I fear that all my work for you has been for nothing.
12 My brothers, I beg you, be like me because I am like you. You did me no wrong.
13 You know that I was sick when I first told you the good news.
14 My sickness troubled you. But you did not think wrongly of me or turn away from me. You received me as if I were an angel from God, as if I were Christ Jesus.
15 Why are you not happy any more? I saw myself that you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if you could do such a thing.
16 Do you hate me because I tell you the truth?
17 Other people are trying hard to get you on their side. But they do not mean to help you. They want to get you away from Christ so that you will listen to them.
18 Of course, it is good if someone tries to help you, but only if it is for a good reason. It is always good, not only when I am with you.
19 My dear children, I feel pain for you again, like a mother when her child is being born. I will feel pain until Christ lives in your heart.
20 I wish I could be with you now, and not have to talk this way. But I am troubled about you.
21 Tell me, you people that want the law to control you, why do you not listen to the law?
22 The holy writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was the son of the slave woman. The other one was the son of the free woman.
23 The child of the slave woman was born as any child is born. But the child of the free woman was born because God promised he would be born.
24 These things have another meaning. These two women are like two agreements. One agreement came from Mount Sinai. The children are born slaves. That agreement is like Hagar.
25 So Hagar means Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is like the city of Jerusalem today, because Jerusalem is a slave and her children are too.
26 But the city of Jerusalem in heaven is free, and that is our mother.
27 The holy writings say, `The woman who has not had a child, be happy! You who do not feel the pain of bearing a child, open your mouth and shout. The woman who is left alone has more children than the woman who has a husband!'
28 My brothers, we are like Isaac. We are born because God made a promise.
29 Abraham's child who was born as any child is born, troubled the other child who was born by the Spirit. It is that way today.
30 But what does the holy writings say? They says, `Put away the slave woman and her son. The son of the slave woman will have nothing when the father dies. The son of the free woman will have everything.'
31 So, my brothers, we are not the children of the slave woman, but we are children of the free woman.
5 Christ has made us really free. So, stay free! Do not let yourselves be made slaves again.
2 I, Paul, say to you again that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ is no help to you at all.
3 Again I say to every man who is circumcised, he must obey all the law.
4 Some of you are trying to obey the law, so that God will call you good. If you do this, you have been cut off from Christ. You have lost the blessing of God.
5 But we hope to be made right by believing in Christ. The Spirit helps us to do this.
6 So if a man belongs to Christ Jesus, it does not matter if he is circumcised or not. He must show by his love that he believes.
7 You were doing well. Who stopped you from doing what is right?
8 God calls you but he is not the one who made you change your minds.
9 Even a little yeast makes all the bread rise.
10 The Lord makes me sure that you will not think any other way. But the teacher who is troubling your minds will be punished. It does not matter who he is.
11 My brothers, am I still telling people to be circumcised? If I am, why are people still troubling me? If it were true, the cross of Christ, which they do not like, has lost its power.
12 These teachers are troubling your minds. How I wish they would cut themselves off!
13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not take that to mean that you can do as you please. But work for each other because you love each other.
14 This one law is the whole law: `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.'
15 But if you bite and chew each other, be careful, or you will be killed by each other.
16 So I say, let the Spirit tell you what you should do. Then you will not do the wrong things you yourselves want to do.
17 People want to do wrong things that the Spirit does not want them to do. And the Spirit wants people to do things they do not want to do. The Spirit and the wrong things you want to do are against each other, so that you do not do what you yourself want to do.
18 If you do what the Spirit wants you to do, then you will be free from the law.
19 It is easy to see the wrong things people want to do. Both married people and those who are not married commit adultery. People make themselves unclean because of their wrong use of sex. They do things they should be ashamed of doing.
20 They worship idols. They use witch-power. They hate. They quarrel. They are jealous. They get angry. They want their own way. They do not agree together and they join different groups against each other.
21 They want what other people have. They even kill. They drink too much strong drink. They like to take part in loud drinking and dancing. They do other things like these. I have told you before and I tell you again. Those who do these things will not be in the kingdom of God. 22,
22 But these are the things which the Spirit wants you to show: love, joy, peace, patience, being kind, being good, being true, being gentle, and keeping the body under control. There is no law that says, `These things are wrong.'
23 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have stopped doing the wrong things they want to do. They have stopped them just as if they were killed on a cross. And they have even stopped wanting to do them.
24 The Spirit gives us life. And so we should do what the Spirit wants us to do.
25 We must not be proud of ourselves. We must not make one another angry. We must not want what other people have.
6 My brothers, perhaps a man has done something wrong. If so, you who are strong in the Spirit must help him to do the right thing again. Help him in a gentle way. Take care yourself, that you are not tried and will want to do wrong.
2 Help each other in your troubles. In that way you obey Christ's law.
3 A man who thinks that he is an important person when he is not, that man fools himself.
4 Let every man test his own work. Then he will be proud of his own work. He will not be proud because he thinks his own work is better than someone else's work.
5 Each man must carry his own load.
6 People are taught the word of God. They should give some of all the good things they have to those who teach them.
7 Do not be fooled about this. God cannot be fooled. A man gets what he plants.
8 The man who plants the wrong things he wants to do will get death, because of those wrong things. But the person who plants what the Spirit wants him to do will live for ever, because of the Spirit.
9 We must not get tired of doing good things. If we do not stop doing them, we will get something back when the right time comes.
10 So then, when we can, we should do good to all people. But most of all, we should do it to those who are in God's family.
11 (See, I am writing this to you in big letters with my own hand.)
12 Some people want to do things that can be seen. They try to force you to be circumcised. They want to hide from trouble which would come to them if they talk about the cross of Christ.
13 Even those who are circumcised do not obey the law. But they want you to be circumcised. Then they can be proud that they made you do it.
14 But I will not be proud of anything but of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of it, the things of the world have become dead to me, and I have become dead to the world.
15 It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not, but he must become a new person.
16 May all who live by this rule have peace. And may God bless them. They are the true people of Israel and they belong to God.
17 From now on, please do not trouble me. For I have marks on my body that show I belong to the Lord Jesus.
18 My brothers, may the kindness and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bless your spirit. May he do it!
© 1969, 1971, 1996, 1998 by SOON Educational Publications