“Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ
will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that
receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are
severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen
away from grace. For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of
righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love. Ye were
running well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This
persuasion came not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord, that ye will
be none otherwise minded; but he that troubleth you shall bear his
judgment, whosoever he be. But I, brethren, if I still preach
circumcision, why am I still persecuted? then hath the stumbling-block
of the cross been done away. I would that they which unsettle you would
even cut themselves off.
“For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom
for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to
another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
“But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not
do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not
under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I forewarn you, even
as I did forewarn you; that they which practise such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.
“If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not be
vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.” Galatians 5,
R. V.
* * * * *
The connection between the fourth and fifth chapters of Galatians is
closer than between any other two, so much so that it is difficult to
see how anybody could ever have hit upon the idea of making a chapter
division. One can not possibly close his reading of the fourth chapter
with the thirty-first verse, but must take in the first verse of the
fifth chapter, as we have done. But we have not by any means learned all
from that verse that we may, and we therefore dwell upon it longer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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