Galatians Chapter 5

Law and Trust, Mutually Exclusive Systems

² I tell you, if you accept circumcision, Christ doesn’t do you any good. ³ You’re obligated to keep the Law completely. ⁴ You that are trying to gain righteousness by law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You’ve fallen away from grace into law. ⁵ In spirit we wait by trust for the goodness we hope for. ⁶ In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is relevant. What matters is trust expressing itself in love.         

Gal 5:2-6

⁷ You were running well. Who stopped you from obeying the truth? ⁸ The persuasion didn’t come from the One that’s calling you. ⁹ A little yeast spreads through the whole lump. ¹⁰ I have confidence in you in the Lord that you won’t adopt something else. The one that’s confusing you will face condemnation, whoever he is. ¹¹ If I still preach circumcision, why do the Jews still persecute me? ¹² I wish the ones that are troubling you would mutilate themselves.

Gal 5:2-12

Christian Freedom

            ¹³ You were called to freedom. Just don’t use it as an excuse for the flesh; serve one another with love. ¹⁴ One statement fulfills the whole Law, “Love your neighbor as yourself” [Lev 19:18]. ¹⁵ If you nip at and chew on each other, you’ll end up eating each other up.

Physical versus spiritual

            ¹⁶ I tell you, live by what’s spiritual and you won’t be fulfilling what’s fleshly. ¹⁷ Flesh pulls against spirit and vice versa. They work against each other, and you end up doing what you don’t want to do. ¹⁸ If spirit is leading you, you’re not under law. ¹⁹ It’s clear what fleshly deeds are: sexual immorality, uncleanness, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, rivalry, jealousy, rage, disputes, divisions, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and so on. I tell you ahead of time, like I told you before, people that do such things won’t inherit God’s kingdom.         

²² But spirit produces fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustworthiness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. There’s no law against such things. ²⁴ Christ’s people have crucified the physical along with its drives and desires. ²⁵ If we have life by spirit, let’s conduct life by spirit. ²⁶ Let’s not be proud or jealous or irritate each other.                                              Gal 5:13-26