Now I, Paul, appeal to you by the gentleness and courtesy of the Christ, I who am humble when I am face to face with you, but bold when I am away from you; and what I ask is that I need not be bold when I ^ with you, not with that boldness of confidence in which I believe I can venture against certain people who charge that we live in the way of the flesh. We do live in the flesh, but our campaign is not according to the flesh. For the weapons of our campaign are not of the flesh, but, with God's help, powerful enough to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and everything raised up in pride against the knowledge of God, and lead every thought in captivity to obedience to the Christ, and are ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is made complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is sure in his heart that he belongs to Christ, let him think again and tell himself that, as he belongs to Christ, so do we. Even if I do boast rather too much of our authority, which God gave us, to build you up, not to tear you down, I shall not be put to shame. Let me not be thought to be trying to frighten you by my letters. His letters, says someone, are weighty and powerful; but when he is here he is weak in body and his discourse is insignificant. Let that person realize that we are the same when we are absent and speaking through letters, and when we are present and acting.
We do not dare to rate ourselves or compare ourselves with certain people who put themselves forward; only they do not realize that they are measuring themselves against themselves and comparing themselves with themselves. We shall not go ^finitely far in our pride, but only within the measure of what God gave us as our portion, which reaches as far as to you. We are not overextending our authority, as if it did not reach as far as you, for we were the first to come to you with the gospel of the Christ. We do not spread our proud claims infinitely far, where others have done the work, but rather hope that, as your faith grows, we shall become surpassingly great in our own territory, so that we can bring the gospel to places beyond you, without making proud claims to work already done in someone else's territory. Let him who takes pride take pride in the Lord; for it is not the man who commends himself who is approved, but the man whom the Lord commends.
111 wish you could put up with a little bit of silliness from me. Please do put up with it; for I am jealous over you as God might be jealous, for I have contracted to bring you like a pure virgin to one bridegroom only: to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent in his knavery seduced Eve, your minds may be corrupted from their ^nocence and pure devotion to the Christ. For if someone comes along and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive another spirit which you had not received before, or another gospel which you had not accepted before, you put up with him cheerfully. But I think we do not in any way fall short of the super- apostles; even if I am an amateur in oratory, I am not one in understanding, as we demonstrated to you in each and every way.
Did I make a mistake in lowering myself so that you should be exalted, because we brought you the gospel of God as a free gift? I robbed other churches by accepting stipends from them in order to serve you; when I was with you, and in need, I was never a burden to any one of you, since the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs, and I always kept myself, and shall keep myself, from burdening you. As Christ's truth is in me, I shall not be kept from making this claim in all the region of Achaea. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.
This I do, and this I shall do to cut away the pretexts of those who desire a pretext for boasting that they are found to be our equals. Such people are the false apostles, treacherous workers, disguised as apostles of Christ. And no wonder; even Satan disguises himself as the angel of light, so there is nothing startling if his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will be what their acts have deserved.
I say once again, let no one take me for a fool; but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too can do a little boasting. What I say now has nothing to do with the Lord, but in this state of boastfulness I am speaking, as it were, like a madman. Since many boast about matters of the flesh, I shall boast too. You, being sensible people, cheerfully put up with fools; you-put up with anyone who enslaves you, eats you alive, lays hands on you, browbeats you, or hits you in the face. I say to our s^rne, we are too weak for that; but where one can show his daring, I mean, in madness, I too am daring. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Aie they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abrah^? So am I. Aie they ministers of Christ? In my madness I say it: I am, more than they. With more labors, more imprisonments, many more beatings, often near the point of death; five times I took the thirty-nine lashes from the Jews, three times I was beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, and spent a day and a night in the water; often on the road, with danger from rivers, danger from brigands, danger from my own people, danger from foreigners, danger in the city, danger in the wilds, danger at sea, danger among false brothers; with toil and hardship, often sleepless, in hunger and thirst, often famished, cold, and naked. Aside from externals, there was the day-by-day pressure on me, my anxious concern for all the churches. Who fails, without my failing with him? Who goes astray, without my burning in sympathy? If I must boast, I will boast about those matters which show my weakness. God, the father of the Lord Jesus, blessed forever and ever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the local governor for King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes under guard so as to seize me; but I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.
11 I must make my boast. It does me no good, but I will go on to speak of visions and revelations of the Lord. I know of a Christian man fourteen years ago, who, whether in his body or out of it I do not know, God knows, was caught up into the third heaven. And I know that such a man, whether in his body or out of his body I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard secret sayings which it is not lawful for any man to repeat. Of such a man I will boast, but not of myself except in the matter of my weaknesses. If I do choose to boast, I shall not be a fool, because what I say will be true; but I refrain, not wishing anyone to th^k me better than what he sees and hears, judging me by the greatness of the things revealed to me. Because of these, to keep me from self-conceit, a thorn was stuck into my flesh, an angel of Satan, to hurt me and keep me from self-conceit. Concerning this I called three times upon the Lord to remove it from me; but he said to me: My grace is enough for you; your power is fulfilled in your weakness. Therefore I will boast the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of the Christ may reside in me. So I am well pleased with weaknesses, outrages, duress, pursuit, and hardships, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
I have been a fool. But you forced me to it. I should have been recommended by you. For I have in no way come short of the super-apostles, even though I am nothing; for the signs of the apostle have been demonstrated among you with every kind of patience, by signs and portents and miracles. In what have you been treated worse than the other churches except that I have not been a burden upon you? Pardon me for this injustice.
Here I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I shall not be a burden upon you; for I want you, not your money, since children are not obliged to store up treasures for the parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be expended myself for the sake of your lives. If I love you excessively, am I the less beloved? Concede, I did not burden you. But was I really unscrupulous and took you by guile? Could I have taken advantage of you through one of those I sent to you? I asked Titus to go and I sent the brother with him. Surely Titus did not take advantage of you? Do we not go in the same spirit as he? In the same footsteps?
Have you been thinking all this while that we were defending ourselves to you? We are speaking as Christians, before God. And all is for your edification,
dear friends, for I am afraid I might arrive and find you not as I would wish you to be, and I myself be found not as you wish me to be; and there will be rivalry, jealousy, rages, ambitions, slanders, whisperings, pretensions, disorder- liness. I am afraid God might humiliate me before you once again, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and did not repent of the viciousness and lechery and unchastity of which they were guilty.
I am coming to you for the third time; and everything said shall be established by the mouths of two, or three, witnesses. As I warned you on my second visit, so I warn you now in my absence, both those who sinned before and all the rest: when I come again I will not spare you, since you demand a proof of the Christ who speaks in me. He is not weak against you but strong among you, since he was crucified because of weakness but lives because of the power of God. We too are weak with him but shall live with him because of the power of God. Test yourselves, whether you are still in the faith, assess yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, and that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you prove unworthy. I hope you will recognize that we are not unworthy. And we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong, not so that we may appear worthy, but so that you may do what is good and we may be, as it were, the unworthy ones. We cannot do anything against the truth, only on the side of the truth. We rejoice when we are weak and you are strong; that is what we are praying for, your improvement. Therefore I write this while I ^ still absent from you, so as not to use too sharply, when I am with you, the authority which the Lord gave me (to build you up, not to tear you down).
For the rest, brothers, farewell; improve yourselves, encourage each other, agree, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with the sacred kiss. All the saints send you greetings. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Letter to the Galatians
1PAUL, THE APOSTLE, NOT FROM MEN, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead; and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present age, which is evil; according to the will of our God and Father, whose glory is forever and ever. Amen.
I am amazed that you have so quickly forsaken the man who summoned you by the grace of Christ, for another gospel, which is not another gospel; unless there are some people who are confusing you and trying to upset the gospel of the Christ. But even if anyone, we ourselves or an angel from heaven, announces any gospel that is contrary to the gospel we brought you, let him be damned. I have said it before and I say it again now, if anyone brings you a gospel contrary to the one you have been given, let him be damned.
Am I appealing now to men or to God? Or ^ I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I should not be the slave of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, the gospel you received from me is not according to man; nor did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard how I used to act when I was a Judaist, how excessively I persecuted and assailed the church of God, and went further in the Jewish faith than many contemporaries of my own kind, since I was an extreme zealot for the traditions of our fathers. But when he, who had marked me from my mother's womb and summoned me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son through me, so that I should bring his gospel to the Gentiles, I did not tum at once to any flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to learn to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days, but I did not see any other of the apostles except James the brother of the Lord. Behold, before God, what
^ writing you is no he. Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. But I was not known personally in the churches of Christ in Judaea; they had only heard this: the man who once persecuted us is now preaching the gospel of the faith which he used to assail. And they glorified God for me.
Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and taking Titus along. I went up in obedience to a vision; and I put before them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles; but I did it privately, to the men of mark, so that the race I ran should not be run, or have been run, in vain. Even Titus, who was with me and was a Greek, was not forced to be circumcised, but only might have been because of some so-called brothers who were brought in, who stole in to spy on that freedom which we had in Christ Jesus, and to enslave us. But we did not for one moment give way and obey them; so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. But of those who were thought to have some standing—which ones they were does not matter to me, God is no respecter of persons—those who were thought to have some standing did not make any additions to my gospel. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncirc^ncised just as Peter had been with the circumcised; for he who had moved Peter to his mission to the circumcised had moved me to go to the Gentiles. And realizing the grace that had been granted to me, James and Peter and John, who are held to be the pillars of the church, gave B^abas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised; only we should remember their poor, which I have taken pains to do.
Then when Peter came to Antioch, I stood up to him face to face because he was plainly at fault. Before the arrival of certain people from James he had been eating with the Gentiles; but when these came he flinched and removed himself from them, fearing the representatives of the circumcised. And the other Jews were hypocrites along with him, so that even Barnabas followed them in their hypocrisy, but when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all: If you, a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you make the Gentiles be like Jews?
We, Jews by birth, not sinners from among the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by doing what is in the law unless it is through belief in Christ Jesus, believe, we too, in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by doing what is in the law. It is not from the law that all flesh shall be justified. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves are found to be also sinners, then is Christ the minister of sin? Never! But if I rebuild what I tore down, I make myself a transgressor. Because of the law I died in the law to live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. But I who now live in the flesh live in faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not reject the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
О foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Christ was displayed on the cross? I should like to le^n this one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit from doing what is in the law or from listening to faith? Are you so foolish? Did you begin with the spirit and now end with the flesh? Did you undergo all this in vain? If it really is in vain. Does he who provides you with the Spirit and works wonders among you do this because you are doing what is in the law or listening to faith? It is like Abraham, who believed God and it was counted as righteousness in him.
You know that it is those who believe who are the sons of Abraham. For the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, brought this gospel first to Abraham, saying: In you all the nations shall be blessed. So that those who are of the faith are blessed along with the faithful Abraham. All whose conduct is controlled by the law are subject to a curse; for it is written: Anyone is accursed who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, that he must do them.
That no one is j
ustified with God by the law is evident, because: The righteous man shall live by faith. But the law is not a matter of faith; rather it says: He who does these things shall live by them. Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming the thing accursed, for our sake, since it is written: Accursed is everyone who hangs upon the tree; so that, by Jesus Christ, the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations, so that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through our faith.
Brothers, I am speaking in human terms. No one can nullify or add to the testament of a human being when it has been ratified. The promises were spoken to Abraham and his descendant. It does not say, and to his descendants, as for many; but as for one, and to your descendant, that is, Christ. This is what I am saying; that law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not disqualify so as to make void the promise, a testament that was ratified before by God. For if the inheritance came from the law, it would not come from the promise; but to Abraham God gave it as a grace through the promise.
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