Bible in 90 Days

15 Now let me remind you, brothers, of what the Gospel really is, for it has not changed—it is the same Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is squarely built upon this wonderful message; ² and it is this Good News that saves you if you still firmly believe it, unless of course you never really believed it in the first place.

³ I passed on to you right from the first what had been told to me, that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said he would, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that three days afterwards he arose from the grave just as the prophets foretold. ⁵ He was seen by Peter and later by the rest of “the Twelve.”^{[a] 6} After that he was seen by more than five hundred Christian brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. ⁷ Then James saw him, and later all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all I saw him too, long after the others, as though I had been born almost too late for this. ⁹ For I am the least worthy of all the apostles, and I shouldn’t even be called an apostle at all after the way I treated the church of God.

¹⁰ But whatever I am now it is all because God poured out such kindness and grace upon me—and not without results: for I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet actually I wasn’t doing it, but God working in me, to bless me. ¹¹ It makes no difference who worked the hardest, I or they; the important thing is that we preached the Gospel to you and you believed it.

¹² But tell me this! Since you believe what we preach, that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying that dead people will never come back to life again? ¹³ For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead. ¹⁴ And if he is still dead, then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless; ¹⁵ and we apostles are all liars because we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, and of course that isn’t true if the dead do not come back to life again. ¹⁶ If they don’t, then Christ is still dead, ¹⁷ and you are very foolish to keep on trusting God to save you, and you are still under condemnation for your sins; ¹⁸ in that case, all Christians who have died are lost! ¹⁹ And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures.

²⁰ But the fact is that Christ did actually rise from the dead and has become the first of millions^[b] who will come back to life again someday.

²¹ Death came into the world because of what one man (Adam) did, and it is because of what this other man (Christ) has done that now there is the resurrection from the dead. ²² Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, being members of his sinful race, and wherever there is sin, death results. But all who are related to Christ will rise again. ²³ Each, however, in his own turn: Christ rose first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will become alive again.

²⁴ After that the end will come when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having put down all enemies of every kind. ²⁵ For Christ will be King until he has defeated all his enemies, ²⁶ including the last enemy—death. This too must be defeated and ended. ²⁷ For the rule and authority over all things has been given to Christ by his Father; except, of course, Christ does not rule over the Father himself, who gave him this power to rule. ²⁸ When Christ has finally won the battle against all his enemies, then he, the Son of God, will put himself also under his Father’s orders, so that God who has given him the victory over everything else will be utterly supreme.

²⁹ If the dead will not come back to life again, then what point is there in people being baptized for those who are gone? Why do it unless you believe that the dead will someday rise again?

³⁰ And why should we ourselves be continually risking our lives, facing death hour by hour? ³¹ For it is a fact that I face death daily; that is as true as my pride in your growth in the Lord. ³² And what value was there in fighting wild beasts—those men of Ephesus—if it was only for what I gain in this life down here? If we will never live again after we die, then we might as well go and have ourselves a good time: let us eat, drink, and be merry. What’s the difference? For tomorrow we die, and that ends everything!

³³ Don’t be fooled by those who say such things. If you listen to them you will start acting like them. ³⁴ Get some sense and quit your sinning. For to your shame I say it; some of you are not even Christians at all and have never really known God.^[c]

³⁵ But someone may ask, “How will the dead be brought back to life again? What kind of bodies will they have?” ³⁶ What a foolish question! You will find the answer in your own garden! When you put a seed into the ground it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it “dies” first. ³⁷ And when the green shoot comes up out of the seed, it is very different from the seed you first planted. For all you put into the ground is a dry little seed of wheat or whatever it is you are planting, ³⁸ then God gives it a beautiful new body—just the kind he wants it to have; a different kind of plant grows from each kind of seed. ³⁹ And just as there are different kinds of seeds and plants, so also there are different kinds of flesh. Humans, animals, fish, and birds are all different.

⁴⁰ The angels^[d] in heaven have bodies far different from ours, and the beauty and the glory of their bodies is different from the beauty and the glory of ours. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of glory while the moon and stars have another kind. And the stars differ from each other in their beauty and brightness.

⁴² In the same way, our earthly bodies which die and decay are different from the bodies we shall have when we come back to life again, for they will never die. ⁴³ The bodies we have now embarrass us, for they become sick and die; but they will be full of glory when we come back to life again. Yes, they are weak, dying bodies now, but when we live again they will be full of strength. ⁴⁴ They are just human bodies at death, but when they come back to life they will be superhuman bodies. For just as there are natural, human bodies, there are also supernatural, spiritual bodies.

⁴⁵ The Scriptures tell us that the first man, Adam, was given a natural, human body^[e] but Christ is more than that, for he was life-giving Spirit.

⁴⁶ First, then, we have these human bodies, and later on God gives us spiritual, heavenly bodies. ⁴⁷ Adam was made from the dust of the earth, but Christ came from heaven above. ⁴⁸ Every human being has a body just like Adam’s, made of dust, but all who become Christ’s will have the same kind of body as his—a body from heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as each of us now has a body like Adam’s, so we shall some day have a body like Christ’s.

⁵⁰ I tell you this, my brothers: an earthly body made of flesh and blood cannot get into God’s Kingdom. These perishable bodies of ours are not the right kind to live forever.

⁵¹ But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! ⁵² It will all happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky,^[f] and all the Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall suddenly have new bodies too. ⁵³ For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever.

⁵⁴ When this happens, then at last this Scripture will come true—“Death is swallowed up in victory.” ^55-56 O death, where then your victory? Where then your sting? For sin—the sting that causes death—will all be gone; and the law, which reveals our sins, will no longer be our judge. ⁵⁷ How we thank God for all of this! It is he who makes us victorious through Jesus Christ our Lord!

⁵⁸ So, my dear brothers, since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted as it would be if there were no resurrection.

16 Now here are the directions about the money you are collecting to send to the Christians in Jerusalem;^[g] (and, by the way, these are the same directions I gave to the churches in Galatia). ² On every Lord’s Day each of you should put aside something from what you have earned during the week, and use it for this offering. The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once. ³ When I come I will send your loving gift with a letter to Jerusalem, to be taken there by trustworthy messengers you yourselves will choose. ⁴ And if it seems wise for me to go along too, then we can travel together.

⁵ I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia first, but I will be staying there only for a little while. ⁶ It could be that I will stay longer with you, perhaps all winter, and then you can send me on to my next destination. ⁷ This time I don’t want to make just a passing visit and then go right on; I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me. ⁸ I will be staying here at Ephesus until the holiday of Pentecost, ⁹ for there is a wide open door for me to preach and teach here. So much is happening, but there are many enemies.

¹⁰ If Timothy comes make him feel at home, for he is doing the Lord’s work just as I am. ¹¹ Don’t let anyone despise or ignore him because he is young,^[h] but send him back to me happy with his time among you; I am looking forward to seeing him soon, along with the others who are returning.

¹² I begged Apollos to visit you along with the others, but he thought that it was not at all God’s will for him to go now; he will be seeing you later on when he has the opportunity.

¹³ Keep your eyes open for spiritual danger; stand true to the Lord; act like men; be strong; ¹⁴ and whatever you do, do it with kindness and love.

¹⁵ Do you remember Stephanas and his family? They were the first to become Christians in Greece, and they are spending their lives helping and serving Christians everywhere. ¹⁶ Please follow their instructions and do everything you can to help them as well as all others like them who work hard at your side with such real devotion. ¹⁷ I am so glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have arrived here for a visit. They have been making up for the help you aren’t here to give me. ¹⁸ They have cheered me greatly and have been a wonderful encouragement to me, as I am sure they were to you, too. I hope you properly appreciate the work of such men as these.

¹⁹ The churches here in Asia send you their loving greetings. Aquila and Priscilla send you their love, and so do all the others who meet in their home for their church service. ²⁰ All the friends here have asked me to say hello to you for them. And give each other a loving handshake when you meet.

²¹ I will write these final words of this letter with my own hand: ²² if anyone does not love the Lord, that person is cursed. Lord Jesus, come! ²³ May the love and favor of the Lord Jesus Christ rest upon you. ²⁴ My love to all of you, for we all belong to Christ Jesus.

Sincerely, Paul

1 Dear friends: This letter is from me, Paul, appointed by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger; and from our dear brother Timothy. We are writing to all of you Christians there in Corinth and throughout Greece.^{[i] 2} May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ mightily bless each one of you and give you peace.

^3-4 What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. ⁵ You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. ^6-7 We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.

⁸ I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. ⁹ We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. ¹⁰ And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. ¹¹ But you must help us too by praying for us. For much thanks and praise will go to God from you who see his wonderful answers to your prayers for our safety!

¹² We are so glad that we can say with utter honesty that in all our dealings we have been pure and sincere, quietly depending upon the Lord for his help and not on our own skills. And that is even more true, if possible, about the way we have acted toward you. ^13-14 My letters have been straightforward and sincere; nothing is written between the lines! And even though you don’t know me very well (I hope someday you will), I want you to try to accept me and be proud of me as you already are to some extent; just as I shall be of you on that day when our Lord Jesus comes back again.

^15-16 It was because I was so sure of your understanding and trust that I planned to stop and see you on my way to Macedonia, as well as afterwards when I returned, so that I could be a double blessing to you and so that you could send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷ Then why, you may be asking, did I change my plan? Hadn’t I really made up my mind yet? Or am I like a man of the world who says yes when he really means no? ¹⁸ Never! As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes.

¹⁹ Timothy and Silvanus and I have been telling you about Jesus Christ the Son of God. He isn’t one to say yes when he means no. He always does exactly what he says. ²⁰ He carries out and fulfills all of God’s promises, no matter how many of them there are; and we have told everyone how faithful he is, giving glory to his name. ²¹ It is this God who has made you and me into faithful Christians and commissioned us apostles to preach the Good News. ²² He has put his brand upon us—his mark of ownership—and given us his Holy Spirit in our hearts as guarantee that we belong to him and as the first installment of all that he is going to give us.

²³ I call upon this God to witness against me if I am not telling the absolute truth: the reason I haven’t come to visit you yet is that I don’t want to sadden you with a severe rebuke. ²⁴ When I come, although I can’t do much to help your faith, for it is strong already, I want to be able to do something about your joy: I want to make you happy, not sad.

2 “No,” I said to myself, “I won’t do it. I’ll not make them unhappy with another painful visit.” ² For if I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? You are the ones to do it, and how can you if I cause you pain? ³ That is why I wrote as I did in my last letter, so that you will get things straightened out before I come.^[j] Then, when I do come, I will not be made sad by the very ones who ought to give me greatest joy. I felt sure that your happiness was so bound up in mine that you would not be happy either unless I came with joy.

⁴ Oh, how I hated to write that letter! It almost broke my heart, and I tell you honestly that I cried over it. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I had to show you how very much I loved you and cared about what was happening to you.

^5-6 Remember that the man I wrote about, who caused all the trouble, has not caused sorrow to me as much as to all the rest of you—though I certainly have my share in it too. I don’t want to be harder on him than I should. He has been punished enough by your united disapproval. ⁷ Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so bitter and discouraged that he won’t be able to recover. ⁸ Please show him now that you still do love him very much.

⁹ I wrote to you as I did so that I could find out how far you would go in obeying me. ¹⁰ When you forgive anyone, I do too. And whatever I have forgiven (to the extent that this affected me too) has been by Christ’s authority, and for your good. ¹¹ A further reason for forgiveness is to keep from being outsmarted by Satan, for we know what he is trying to do.

¹² Well, when I got as far as the city of Troas, the Lord gave me tremendous opportunities to preach the Gospel. ¹³ But Titus, my dear brother, wasn’t there to meet me and I couldn’t rest, wondering where he was and what had happened to him. So I said good-bye and went right on to Macedonia to try to find him.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, he has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume. ¹⁵ As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us. ¹⁶ To those who are not being saved, we seem a fearful smell of death and doom, while to those who know Christ we are a life-giving perfume. But who is adequate for such a task as this? ¹⁷ Only those who, like ourselves, are men of integrity, sent by God, speaking with Christ’s power, with God’s eye upon us. We are not like those hucksters—and there are many of them—whose idea in getting out the Gospel is to make a good living out of it.

3 Are we beginning to be like those false teachers of yours who must tell you all about themselves and bring long letters of recommendation with them? I think you hardly need someone’s letter to tell you about us, do you? And we don’t need a recommendation from you, either! ² The only letter I need is you yourselves! By looking at the good change in your hearts, everyone can see that we have done a good work among you. ³ They can see that you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts.

⁴ We dare to say these good things about ourselves only because of our great trust in God through Christ, that he will help us to be true to what we say, ⁵ and not because we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success comes from God. ⁶ He is the one who has helped us tell others about his new agreement to save them. We do not tell them that they must obey every law of God or die; but we tell them there is life for them from the Holy Spirit. The old way, trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives them life.

⁷ Yet that old system of law that led to death began with such glory that people could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For as he gave them God’s law to obey, his face shone out with the very glory of God—though the brightness was already fading away. ⁸ Shall we not expect far greater glory in these days when the Holy Spirit is giving life? ⁹ If the plan that leads to doom was glorious, much more glorious is the plan that makes men right with God. ¹⁰ In fact, that first glory as it shone from Moses’ face is worth nothing at all in comparison with the overwhelming glory of the new agreement. ¹¹ So if the old system that faded into nothing was full of heavenly glory, the glory of God’s new plan for our salvation is certainly far greater, for it is eternal.

¹² Since we know that this new glory will never go away, we can preach with great boldness, ¹³ and not as Moses did, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelis could not see the glory fade away.

¹⁴ Not only Moses’ face was veiled, but his people’s minds and understanding were veiled and blinded too. Even now when the Scripture is read it seems as though Jewish hearts and minds are covered by a thick veil, because they cannot see and understand the real meaning of the Scriptures. For this veil of misunderstanding can be removed only by believing in Christ. ¹⁵ Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings their hearts are blind and they think that obeying the Ten Commandments is the way to be saved.

¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord from his sins, then the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ The Lord is the Spirit who gives them life, and where he is there is freedom from trying to be saved by keeping the laws of God.^{[k] 18} But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.

4 It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others,^[l] and so we never give up. ² We do not try to trick people into believing—we are not interested in fooling anyone. We never try to get anyone to believe that the Bible teaches what it doesn’t. All such shameful methods we forego. We stand in the presence of God as we speak and so we tell the truth, as all who know us will agree.

³ If the Good News we preach is hidden to anyone, it is hidden from the one who is on the road to eternal death. ⁴ Satan, who is the god of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the Gospel that is shining upon him or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is God.^{[m] 5} We don’t go around preaching about ourselves but about Christ Jesus as Lord. All we say of ourselves is that we are your slaves because of what Jesus has done for us. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that it is the brightness of his glory that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us^[n]—is held in a perishable container, that is, in our weak bodies. Everyone can see that the glorious power within must be from God and is not our own.

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. ⁹ We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. ¹⁰ These bodies of ours are constantly facing death just as Jesus did; so it is clear to all that it is only the living Christ within who keeps us safe.^[o]

¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger to our lives because we serve the Lord, but this gives us constant opportunities to show forth the power of Jesus Christ within our dying bodies. ¹² Because of our preaching we face death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.

¹³ We boldly say what we believe, trusting God to care for us,^[p] just as the psalm writer did when he said, “I believe and therefore I speak.” ¹⁴ We know that the same God who brought the Lord Jesus back from death will also bring us back to life again with Jesus and present us to him along with you. ¹⁵ These sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And the more of you who are won to Christ, the more there are to thank him for his great kindness, and the more the Lord is glorified.

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our inner strength in the Lord is growing every day. ¹⁷ These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessing upon us forever and ever! ¹⁸ So we do not look at what we can see right now, the troubles all around us, but we look forward to the joys in heaven which we have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

5 For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² How weary we grow of our present bodies. That is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have heavenly bodies that we shall put on like new clothes. ³ For we shall not be merely spirits without bodies. ⁴ These earthly bodies make us groan and sigh, but we wouldn’t like to think of dying and having no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. ⁵ This is what God has prepared for us, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

⁶ Now we look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies, realizing that every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus. ⁷ We know these things are true by believing, not by seeing. ⁸ And we are not afraid but are quite content to die, for then we will be at home with the Lord. ⁹ So our aim is to please him always in everything we do, whether we are here in this body or away from this body and with him in heaven. ¹⁰ For we must all stand before Christ to be judged and have our lives laid bare—before him. Each of us will receive whatever he deserves for the good or bad things he has done in his earthly body.

¹¹ It is because of this solemn fear of the Lord, which is ever present in our minds, that we work so hard to win others. God knows our hearts, that they are pure in this matter, and I hope that, deep within, you really know it too.

¹² Are we trying to pat ourselves on the back again? No, I am giving you some good ammunition! You can use this on those preachers of yours who brag about how well they look and preach but don’t have true and honest hearts. You can boast about us that we, at least, are well intentioned and honest.

^13-14 Are we insane to say such things about ourselves?^[q] If so, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe that we have died to the old life we used to live. ¹⁵ He died for all so that all who live—having received eternal life from him—might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them. ¹⁶ So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, merely as a human being like myself. How differently I feel now! ¹⁷ When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!

¹⁸ All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. ²⁰ We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. ²¹ For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!^[r]

6 As God’s partners, we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God’s great kindness. ² For God says, “Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered.” Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you.

³ We try to live in such a way that no one will ever be offended or kept back from finding the Lord by the way we act, so that no one can find fault with us and blame it on the Lord. ⁴ In fact, in everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God.

We patiently endure suffering and hardship and trouble of every kind. ⁵ We have been beaten, put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, stayed awake through sleepless nights of watching, and gone without food. ⁶ We have proved ourselves to be what we claim by our wholesome lives and by our understanding of the Gospel and by our patience. We have been kind and truly loving and filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁷ We have been truthful, with God’s power helping us in all we do. All of the godly man’s arsenal—weapons of defense, and weapons of attack—have been ours.

⁸ We stand true to the Lord whether others honor us or despise us, whether they criticize us or commend us. We are honest, but they call us liars.

⁹ The world ignores us, but we are known to God; we live close to death, but here we are, still very much alive. We have been injured but kept from death. ¹⁰ Our hearts ache, but at the same time we have the joy of the Lord. We are poor, but we give rich spiritual gifts to others. We own nothing, and yet we enjoy everything.

¹¹ Oh, my dear Corinthian friends! I have told you all my feelings; I love you with all my heart. ¹² Any coldness still between us is not because of any lack of love on my part but because your love is too small and does not reach out to me and draw me in. ¹³ I am talking to you now as if you truly were my very own children. Open your hearts to us! Return our love!

¹⁴ Don’t be teamed with those who do not love the Lord, for what do the people of God have in common with the people of sin? How can light live with darkness? ¹⁵ And what harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a Christian be a partner with one who doesn’t believe? ¹⁶ And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For you are God’s temple, the home of the living God, and God has said of you, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” ¹⁷ That is why the Lord has said, “Leave them; separate yourselves from them; don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you ¹⁸ and be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters.”

7 Having such great promises as these, dear friends, let us turn away from everything wrong, whether of body or spirit, and purify ourselves, living in the wholesome fear of God, giving ourselves to him alone. ² Please open your hearts to us again, for not one of you has suffered any wrong from us. Not one of you was led astray. We have cheated no one nor taken advantage of anyone. ³ I’m not saying this to scold or blame you, for, as I have said before, you are in my heart forever, and I live and die with you. ⁴ I have the highest confidence in you, and my pride in you is great. You have greatly encouraged me; you have made me so happy in spite of all my suffering.

⁵ When we arrived in Macedonia there was no rest for us; outside, trouble was on every hand and all around us; within us, our hearts were full of dread and fear. ⁶ Then God who cheers those who are discouraged refreshed us by the arrival of Titus. ⁷ Not only was his presence a joy, but also the news that he brought of the wonderful time he had with you. When he told me how much you were looking forward to my visit, and how sorry you were about what had happened, and about your loyalty and warm love for me, well, I overflowed with joy!

⁸ I am no longer sorry that I sent that letter to you, though I was very sorry for a time, realizing how painful it would be to you. But it hurt you only for a little while. ⁹ Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you but because the pain turned you to God. It was a good kind of sorrow you felt, the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so that I need not come to you with harshness. ¹⁰ For God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life. We should never regret his sending it. But the sorrow of the man who is not a Christian is not the sorrow of true repentance and does not prevent eternal death.

¹¹ Just see how much good this grief from the Lord did for you! You no longer shrugged your shoulders but became earnest and sincere and very anxious to get rid of the sin that I wrote you about. You became frightened about what had happened and longed for me to come and help. You went right to work on the problem and cleared it up, punishing the man who sinned.^[s] You have done everything you could to make it right.

¹² I wrote as I did so the Lord could show how much you really do care for us. That was my purpose even more than to help the man who sinned or his father to whom he did the wrong.

¹³ In addition to the encouragement you gave us by your love, we were made happier still by Titus’ joy when you gave him such a fine welcome and set his mind at ease. ¹⁴ I told him how it would be—told him before he left me of my pride in you—and you didn’t disappoint me. I have always told you the truth and now my boasting to Titus has also proved true! ¹⁵ He loves you more than ever when he remembers the way you listened to him so willingly and received him so anxiously and with such deep concern. ¹⁶ How happy this makes me, now that I am sure all is well between us again. Once again I can have perfect confidence in you.

8 Now I want to tell you what God in his grace has done for the churches in Macedonia.

² Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, they have mixed their wonderful joy with their deep poverty, and the result has been an overflow of giving to others. ³ They gave not only what they could afford but far more; and I can testify that they did it because they wanted to and not because of nagging on my part. ⁴ They begged us to take the money so they could share in the joy of helping the Christians in Jerusalem. ⁵ Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us, for whatever directions God might give to them through us. ⁶ They were so enthusiastic about it that we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to visit you and encourage you to complete your share in this ministry of giving. ⁷ You people there are leaders in so many ways—you have so much faith, so many good preachers, so much learning, so much enthusiasm, so much love for us. Now I want you to be leaders also in the spirit of cheerful giving.

⁸ I am not giving you an order; I am not saying you must do it, but others are eager for it. This is one way to prove that your love is real, that it goes beyond mere words.

⁹ You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus was: though he was so very rich, yet to help you he became so very poor, so that by being poor he could make you rich.

¹⁰ I want to suggest that you finish what you started to do a year ago, for you were not only the first to propose this idea, but the first to begin doing something about it. ¹¹ Having started the ball rolling so enthusiastically, you should carry this project through to completion just as gladly, giving whatever you can out of whatever you have. Let your enthusiastic idea at the start be equalled by your realistic action now. ¹² If you are really eager to give, then it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t.

¹³ Of course, I don’t mean that those who receive your gifts should have an easy time of it at your expense, ¹⁴ but you should divide with them. Right now you have plenty and can help them; then at some other time they can share with you when you need it. In this way, each will have as much as he needs. ¹⁵ Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? “He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had enough.” So you also should share with those in need.

¹⁶ I am thankful to God that he has given Titus the same real concern for you that I have. ¹⁷ He is glad to follow my suggestion that he visit you again—but I think he would have come anyway, for he is very eager to see you! ¹⁸ I am sending another well-known brother with him, who is highly praised as a preacher of the Good News in all the churches. ¹⁹ In fact, this man was elected by the churches to travel with me to take the gift to Jerusalem. This will glorify the Lord and show our eagerness to help each other. ²⁰ By traveling together we will guard against any suspicion, for we are anxious that no one should find fault with the way we are handling this large gift. ²¹ God knows we are honest, but I want everyone else to know it too. That is why we have made this arrangement.

²² And I am sending you still another brother, whom we know from experience to be an earnest Christian. He is especially interested as he looks forward to this trip because I have told him all about your eagerness to help.

²³ If anyone asks who Titus is, say that he is my partner, my helper in helping you, and you can also say that the other two brothers represent the assemblies here and are splendid examples of those who belong to the Lord.

²⁴ Please show your love for me to these men and do for them all that I have publicly boasted you would.

9 I realize that I really don’t even need to mention this to you, about helping God’s people. ² For I know how eager you are to do it, and I have boasted to the friends in Macedonia that you were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was this enthusiasm of yours that stirred up many of them to begin helping. ³ But I am sending these men just to be sure that you really are ready, as I told them you would be, with your money all collected; I don’t want it to turn out that this time I was wrong in my boasting about you. ⁴ I would be very much ashamed—and so would you—if some of these Macedonian people come with me, only to find that you still aren’t ready after all I have told them!

⁵ So I have asked these other brothers to arrive ahead of me to see that the gift you promised is on hand and waiting. I want it to be a real gift and not look as if it were being given under pressure.

⁶ But remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much. ⁷ Everyone must make up his own mind as to how much he should give. Don’t force anyone to give more than he really wants to, for cheerful givers are the ones God prizes. ⁸ God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others. ⁹ It is as the Scriptures say: “The godly man gives generously to the poor. His good deeds will be an honor to him forever.”

¹⁰ For God, who gives seed to the farmer to plant, and later on good crops to harvest and eat, will give you more and more seed to plant and will make it grow so that you can give away more and more fruit from your harvest.

¹¹ Yes, God will give you much so that you can give away much, and when we take your gifts to those who need them they will break out into thanksgiving and praise to God for your help. ¹² So two good things happen as a result of your gifts—those in need are helped, and they overflow with thanks to God. ¹³ Those you help will be glad not only because of your generous gifts to themselves and to others, but they will praise God for this proof that your deeds are as good as your doctrine. ¹⁴ And they will pray for you with deep fervor and feeling because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.

¹⁵ Thank God for his Son—his Gift too wonderful for words.

10 I plead with you—yes, I, Paul—and I plead gently, as Christ himself would do. Yet some of you are saying, “Paul’s letters are bold enough when he is far away, but when he gets here he will be afraid to raise his voice!”

² I hope I won’t need to show you when I come how harsh and rough I can be. I don’t want to carry out my present plans against some of you who seem to think my deeds and words are merely those of an ordinary man. ³ It is true that I am an ordinary, weak human being, but I don’t use human plans and methods to win my battles. ⁴ I use God’s mighty weapons, not those made by men, to knock down the devil’s strongholds. ⁵ These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding him. With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God and change them into men whose hearts’ desire is obedience to Christ. ⁶ I will use these weapons against every rebel who remains after I have first used them on you yourselves and you surrender to Christ.

⁷ The trouble with you is that you look at me and I seem weak and powerless, but you don’t look beneath the surface. Yet if anyone can claim the power and authority of Christ, I certainly can. ⁸ I may seem to be boasting more than I should about my authority over you—authority to help you, not to hurt you—but I shall make good every claim. ⁹ I say this so that you will not think I am just blustering when I scold you in my letters.

¹⁰ “Don’t bother about his letters,” some say. “He sounds big, but it’s all noise. When he gets here you will see that there is nothing great about him, and you have never heard a worse preacher!” ¹¹ This time my personal presence is going to be just as rough on you as my letters are!

¹² Oh, don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare say that I am as wonderful as these other men who tell you how good they are! Their trouble is that they are only comparing themselves with each other and measuring themselves against their own little ideas. What stupidity!

¹³ But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to measure up to God’s plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you. ¹⁴ We are not going too far when we claim authority over you, for we were the first to come to you with the Good News concerning Christ. ¹⁵ It is not as though we were trying to claim credit for the work someone else has done among you. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow and that, still within the limits set for us, our work among you will be greatly enlarged.

¹⁶ After that, we will be able to preach the Good News to other cities that are far beyond you, where no one else is working; then there will be no question about being in someone else’s field. ¹⁷ As the Scriptures say, “If anyone is going to boast, let him boast about what the Lord has done and not about himself.” ¹⁸ When someone boasts about himself and how well he has done, it doesn’t count for much. But when the Lord commends him, that’s different!

11 I hope you will be patient with me as I keep on talking like a fool. Do bear with me and let me say what is on my heart. ² I am anxious for you with the deep concern of God himself—anxious that your love should be for Christ alone, just as a pure maiden saves her love for one man only, for the one who will be her husband. ³ But I am frightened, fearing that in some way you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to our Lord, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden. ⁴ You seem so gullible: you believe whatever anyone tells you even if he is preaching about another Jesus than the one we preach, or a different spirit than the Holy Spirit you received, or shows you a different way to be saved. You swallow it all.

⁵ Yet I don’t feel that these marvelous “messengers from God,” as they call themselves, are any better than I am. ⁶ If I am a poor speaker, at least I know what I am talking about, as I think you realize by now, for we have proved it again and again.

⁷ Did I do wrong and cheapen myself and make you look down on me because I preached God’s Good News to you without charging you anything? ^8-9 Instead I “robbed” other churches by taking what they sent me and using it up while I was with you so that I could serve you without cost. And when that was gone^[t] and I was getting hungry, I still didn’t ask you for anything, for the Christians from Macedonia brought me another gift. I have never yet asked you for one cent, and I never will. ¹⁰ I promise this with every ounce of truth I possess—that I will tell everyone in Greece about it! ¹¹ Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows I do. ¹² But I will do it to cut out the ground from under the feet of those who boast that they are doing God’s work in just the same way we are.

¹³ God never sent those men at all; they are “phonies” who have fooled you into thinking they are Christ’s apostles. ¹⁴ Yet I am not surprised! Satan can change himself into an angel of light, ¹⁵ so it is no wonder his servants can do it too, and seem like godly ministers. In the end they will get every bit of punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

¹⁶ Again I plead, don’t think that I have lost my wits to talk like this; but even if you do, listen to me anyway—a witless man, a fool—while I also boast a little as they do. ¹⁷ Such bragging isn’t something the Lord commanded me to do, for I am acting like a brainless fool. ¹⁸ Yet those other men keep telling you how wonderful they are, so here I go: ^19-20 (You think you are so wise—yet you listen gladly to those fools; you don’t mind at all when they make you their slaves and take everything you have, and take advantage of you, and put on airs, and slap you in the face. ²¹ I’m ashamed to say that I’m not strong and daring like that!

But whatever they can boast about—I’m talking like a fool again—I can boast about it, too.)

²² They brag that they are Hebrews, do they? Well, so am I. And they say that they are Israelites, God’s chosen people? So am I. And they are descendants of Abraham? Well, I am too.

²³ They say they serve Christ? But I have served him far more! (Have I gone mad to boast like this?) I have worked harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again and again. ²⁴ Five different times the Jews gave me their terrible thirty-nine lashes. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I was in the open sea all night and the whole next day. ²⁶ I have traveled many weary miles and have been often in great danger from flooded rivers and from robbers and from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the hands of the Gentiles. I have faced grave dangers from mobs in the cities and from death in the deserts and in the stormy seas and from men who claim to be brothers in Christ but are not. ²⁷ I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food; often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

²⁸ Then, besides all this, I have the constant worry of how the churches are getting along: ²⁹ Who makes a mistake and I do not feel his sadness? Who falls without my longing to help him? Who is spiritually hurt without my fury rising against the one who hurt him?

³⁰ But if I must brag, I would rather brag about the things that show how weak I am. ³¹ God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is to be praised forever and ever, knows I tell the truth. ³² For instance, in Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me; ³³ but I was let down by rope and basket from a hole in the city wall, and so I got away! What popularity!^[u]

12 This boasting is all so foolish, but let me go on. Let me tell about the visions I’ve had, and revelations from the Lord.

^2-3 Fourteen years ago I^[v] was taken up to heaven for a visit. Don’t ask me whether my body was there or just my spirit, for I don’t know; only God can answer that. But anyway, there I was in paradise, ⁴ and heard things so astounding that they are beyond a man’s power to describe or put in words (and anyway I am not allowed to tell them to others). ⁵ That experience is something worth bragging about, but I am not going to do it. I am going to boast only about how weak I am and how great God is to use such weakness for his glory. ⁶ I have plenty to boast about and would be no fool in doing it, but I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than he should from what he can actually see in my life and my message.

⁷ I will say this: because these experiences I had were so tremendous, God was afraid I might be puffed up by them; so I was given a physical condition which has been a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to hurt and bother me and prick my pride. ⁸ Three different times I begged God to make me well again.

⁹ Each time he said, “No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people.” Now I am glad to boast about how weak I am; I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities. ¹⁰ Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite happy about “the thorn,” and about insults and hardships, persecutions and difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong—the less I have, the more I depend on him.

¹¹ You have made me act like a fool—boasting like this—for you people ought to be writing about me and not making me write about myself. There isn’t a single thing these other marvelous fellows have that I don’t have too, even though I am really worth nothing at all. ¹² When I was there I certainly gave you every proof that I was truly an apostle, sent to you by God himself, for I patiently did many wonders and signs and mighty works among you. ¹³ The only thing I didn’t do for you, which I do everywhere else in all other churches, was to become a burden to you—I didn’t ask you to give me food to eat and a place to stay. Please forgive me for this wrong!

¹⁴ Now I am coming to you again, the third time; and it is still not going to cost you anything, for I don’t want your money. I want you! And anyway, you are my children, and little children don’t pay for their father’s and mother’s food—it’s the other way around; parents supply food for their children. ¹⁵ I am glad to give you myself and all I have for your spiritual good, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.

¹⁶ Some of you are saying, “It’s true that his visits didn’t seem to cost us anything, but he is a sneaky fellow, that Paul, and he fooled us. As sure as anything he must have made money from us some way.”

¹⁷ But how? Did any of the men I sent to you take advantage of you? ¹⁸ When I urged Titus to visit you and sent our other brother with him, did they make any profit? No, of course not. For we have the same Holy Spirit and walk in each other’s steps, doing things the same way.

¹⁹ I suppose you think I am saying all this to get back into your good graces. That isn’t it at all. I tell you, with God listening as I say it, that I have said this to help you, dear friends—to build you up spiritually—and not to help myself. ²⁰ For I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won’t like what I find, and then you won’t like the way I will have to act. I am afraid that I will find you quarreling, and envying each other, and being angry with each other, and acting big, and saying wicked things about each other, and whispering behind each other’s backs, filled with conceit and disunity. ²¹ Yes, I am afraid that when I come God will humble me before you and I will be sad and mourn because many of you have sinned before and don’t even care about the wicked, impure things you have done: your lust and immorality, and the taking of other men’s wives.

13 This is the third time I am coming to visit you. The Scriptures tell us that if two or three have seen a wrong, it must be punished. Well, this is my third warning as I come now for this visit.^{[w] 2} I have already warned those who had been sinning when I was there last; now I warn them again and all others, just as I did then, that this time I come ready to punish severely and I will not spare them.

³ I will give you all the proof you want that Christ speaks through me. Christ is not weak in his dealings with you but is a mighty power within you. ⁴ His weak, human body died on the cross, but now he lives by the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak in our bodies, as he was, but now we live and are strong, as he is, and have all of God’s power to use in dealing with you.

⁵ Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ’s presence and power more and more within you? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren’t at all? ⁶ I hope you can agree that I have stood that test and truly belong to the Lord.

⁷ I pray that you will live good lives, not because that will be a feather in our caps,^[x] proving that what we teach is right; no, for we want you to do right even if we ourselves are despised. ⁸ Our responsibility is to encourage the right at all times, not to hope for evil.^{[y] 9} We are glad to be weak and despised if you are really strong. Our greatest wish and prayer is that you will become mature Christians.

¹⁰ I am writing this to you now in the hope that I won’t need to scold and punish when I come; for I want to use the Lord’s authority that he has given me, not to punish you but to make you strong.

¹¹ I close my letter with these last words: Be happy. Grow in Christ. Pay attention to what I have said. Live in harmony and peace. And may the God of love and peace be with you.

¹² Greet each other warmly in the Lord. ¹³ All the Christians here send you their best regards. ¹⁴ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. May God’s love and the Holy Spirit’s friendship be yours.

Paul

1 ^1-2 From: Paul the missionary and all the other Christians here.

To: The churches of Galatia.^[z]

I was not called to be a missionary by any group or agency. My call is from Jesus Christ himself and from God the Father who raised him from the dead. ³ May peace and blessing be yours from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ He died for our sins just as God our Father planned, and rescued us from this evil world in which we live. ⁵ All glory to God through all the ages of eternity. Amen.

⁶ I am amazed that you are turning away so soon from God who, in his love and mercy, invited you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ; you are already following a different “way to heaven,” which really doesn’t go to heaven at all. ⁷ For there is no other way than the one we showed you; you are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.

⁸ Let God’s curses fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other way to be saved than the one we told you about; yes, if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. ⁹ I will say it again: if anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon him.

¹⁰ You can see that I am not trying to please you by sweet talk and flattery; no, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please men I could not be Christ’s servant.

¹¹ Dear friends, I solemnly swear that the way to heaven that I preach is not based on some mere human whim or dream. ¹² For my message comes from no less a person than Jesus Christ himself, who told me what to say. No one else has taught me.

¹³ You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I went after the Christians mercilessly, hunting them down and doing my best to get rid of them all. ¹⁴ I was one of the most religious Jews of my own age in the whole country and tried as hard as I possibly could to follow all the old, traditional rules of my religion.

¹⁵ But then something happened! For even before I was born, God had chosen me to be his and called me—what kindness and grace— ¹⁶ to reveal his Son within me so that I could go to the Gentiles and show them the Good News about Jesus.

When all this happened to me I didn’t go at once and talk it over with anyone else; ¹⁷ I didn’t go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. No, I went away into the deserts of Arabia and then came back to the city of Damascus. ¹⁸ It was not until three years later that I finally went to Jerusalem for a visit with Peter and stayed there with him for fifteen days. ¹⁹ And the only other apostle I met at that time was James, our Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Listen to what I am saying, for I am telling you this in the very presence of God. This is exactly what happened—I am not lying to you.) ²¹ Then after this visit I went to Syria and Cilicia. ²² And still the Christians in Judea didn’t even know what I looked like. ²³ All they knew was what people were saying, that “our former enemy is now preaching the very faith he tried to wreck.” ²⁴ And they gave glory to God because of me.

2 Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along too. ² I went there with definite orders from God to confer with the brothers there about the message I was preaching to the Gentiles. I talked privately to the leaders of the church so that they would all understand just what I had been teaching and, I hoped, agree that it was right. ³ And they did agree; they did not even demand that Titus, my companion, should be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.

⁴ Even that question wouldn’t have come up except for some so-called “Christians” there—false ones, really—who came to spy on us and see what freedom we enjoyed in Christ Jesus, as to whether we obeyed the Jewish laws or not. They tried to get us all tied up in their rules, like slaves in chains. ⁵ But we did not listen to them for a single moment, for we did not want to confuse you into thinking that salvation can be earned by being circumcised and by obeying Jewish laws.

⁶ And the great leaders of the church who were there had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their being great leaders made no difference to me, for all are the same to God.) ^7-9 In fact, when Peter, James, and John, who were known as the pillars of the church, saw how greatly God had used me in winning the Gentiles, just as Peter had been blessed so greatly in his preaching to the Jews—for the same God gave us each our special gifts—they shook hands with Barnabas and me and encouraged us to keep right on with our preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews. ¹⁰ The only thing they did suggest was that we must always remember to help the poor, and I, too, was eager for that.

¹¹ But when Peter came to Antioch I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong. ¹² For when he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians who don’t bother with circumcision and the many other Jewish laws.^[aa] But afterwards, when some Jewish friends of James came, he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these Jewish legalists, who insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation, would say; ¹³ and then all the other Jewish Christians and even Barnabas became hypocrites too, following Peter’s example, though they certainly knew better. ¹⁴ When I saw what was happening and that they weren’t being honest about what they really believed and weren’t following the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Though you are a Jew by birth, you have long since discarded the Jewish laws; so why, all of a sudden, are you trying to make these Gentiles obey them? ¹⁵ You and I are Jews by birth, not mere Gentile sinners, ¹⁶ and yet we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them.”

¹⁷ But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and that we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn’t we need to say that faith in Christ had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord. ¹⁸ Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, ¹⁹ for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ.^[ab]

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I am not one of those who treats Christ’s death as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping Jewish laws, then there was no need for Christ to die.

3 Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has hypnotized you and cast an evil spell upon you? For you used to see the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death as clearly as though I had waved a placard before you with a picture on it of Christ dying on the cross. ² Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the Jewish laws? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you heard about Christ and trusted him to save you. ³ Then have you gone completely crazy? For if trying to obey the Jewish laws never gave you spiritual life in the first place, why do you think that trying to obey them now will make you stronger Christians? ⁴ You have suffered so much for the Gospel. Now are you going to just throw it all overboard? I can hardly believe it!

⁵ I ask you again, does God give you the power of the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you as a result of your trying to obey the Jewish laws? No, of course not. It is when you believe in Christ and fully trust him.

⁶ Abraham had the same experience—God declared him fit for heaven only because he believed God’s promises. ⁷ You can see from this that the real children of Abraham are all the men of faith who truly trust in God.

^8-9 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would save the Gentiles also, through their faith. God told Abraham about this long ago when he said, “I will bless those in every nation who trust in me as you do.” And so it is: all who trust in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received.

¹⁰ Yes, and those who depend on the Jewish laws to save them are under God’s curse, for the Scriptures point out very clearly, “Cursed is everyone who at any time breaks a single one of these laws that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” ¹¹ Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever win God’s favor by trying to keep the Jewish laws because God has said that the only way we can be right in his sight is by faith. As the prophet Habakkuk says it, “The man who finds life will find it through trusting God.” ¹² How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says that a man is saved by obeying every law of God, without one slip. ¹³ But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed” (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross^[ac]).

¹⁴ Now God can bless the Gentiles, too, with this same blessing he promised to Abraham; and all of us as Christians can have the promised Holy Spirit through this faith.

¹⁵ Dear brothers, even in everyday life a promise made by one man to another, if it is written down and signed, cannot be changed. He cannot decide afterward to do something else instead.

¹⁶ Now, God gave some promises to Abraham and his Child. And notice that it doesn’t say the promises were to his children, as it would if all his sons—all the Jews—were being spoken of, but to his Child—and that, of course, means Christ. ¹⁷ Here’s what I am trying to say: God’s promise to save through faith—and God wrote this promise down and signed it—could not be canceled or changed four hundred and thirty years later when God gave the Ten Commandments. ¹⁸ If obeying those laws could save us, then it is obvious that this would be a different way of gaining God’s favor than Abraham’s way, for he simply accepted God’s promise.

¹⁹ Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made. (And there is this further difference. God gave his laws to angels to give to Moses, who then gave them to the people; ²⁰ but when God gave his promise to Abraham, he did it by himself alone, without angels or Moses as go-betweens.)

^21-22 Well then, are God’s laws and God’s promises against each other? Of course not! If we could be saved by his laws, then God would not have had to give us a different way to get out of the grip of sin—for the Scriptures insist we are all its prisoners. The only way out is through faith in Jesus Christ; the way of escape is open to all who believe him.

²³ Until Christ came we were guarded by the law, kept in protective custody, so to speak, until we could believe in the coming Savior.

²⁴ Let me put it another way. The Jewish laws were our teacher and guide until Christ came to give us right standing with God through our faith. ²⁵ But now that Christ has come, we don’t need those laws any longer to guard us and lead us to him.