Galatians 5
5Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.G4739G3767G1657G3739G5547G1659G2248G1659G2532G1758G3361G1758G3825G2218G13972I 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.G2396G1473G3972G3004G5213G3754G1437G4059G5547G5623G5209G37623I 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.G1161G3143G3825G3956G444G4059G3754G2076G3781G4160G3650G35514I 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.G5547G575G2673G3748G1344G1722G3551G1601G54855Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit.G1063G2249G4151G553G1680G1343G1537G41026For 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.G1063G1722G2424G5547G3777G4061G2480G5100G3777G203G235G4102G1754G1223G267You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience?G5143G2573G5101G348G1465G5209G3982G3361G3982G2258This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place.G3988G3756G1537G2564G52099And 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.G3398G2219G2220G3650G544510Deep 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.G1473G3982G1519G5209G1722G2962G3754G5426G3762G243G5426G1161G5015G5209G941G2917G3748G302G560011As 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.G1161G1473G80G1487G2784G2089G2784G4061G5101G1377G2089G1377G686G2673G4625G4716G267312Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!G3785G609G2532G609G387G520913It 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.G1063G80G5210G2564G1909G1657G3440G3361G1657G1519G874G4561G235G1223G26G1398G24014For 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.G1063G3956G3551G4137G1722G1520G3056G1722G25G4675G4139G5613G143815If 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?G1161G1487G1143G2532G2719G240G991G335G3361G355G240G5259G24016My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness.G3004G1161G4043G4151G2532G5055G3364G5055G1939G456117For 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 antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day.G1063G4561G1937G2596G4151G1161G4151G2596G4561G1161G5023G480G240G2443G3363G4160G5023G3739G302G230918Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?G1161G1487G71G4151G2075G3756G5259G355119It 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;G1161G2041G4561G2076G5318G3748G2076G3430G4202G167G76620trinket 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;G1495G5331G2189G2054G2205G2372G2052G1370G13921the 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.G5355G5408G3178G2970G2532G5125G3664G3739G4302G5213G4302G2531G4277G2532G4277G3754G4238G5108G2816G3756G2816G932G231622But 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,G1161G2590G4151G2076G26G5479G1515G3115G5544G19G410223not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.G4236G1466G2596G5108G2076G3756G355124Among 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.G1161G3588G5547G4717G4561G4862G3804G2532G193925Since 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.G1487G2198G4151G4748G2532G4748G415126That 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.G1096G3361G1096G2755G4292G240G5354G240
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