What, then, of the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the coming of the descendant to whom the promise was made. It was ordained by angels through the hand of a mediator. But what is one does not have a mediator; and God is one. Then is the law against the promises of God? Never. For if a law which could create life had been given, righteousness would have been in the law. But scripture had everything confined in sin so that the promise could be given, by faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe.
For before faith came we were in the custody of the law, confined until the coming revelation of faith. Thus the law was our tutor until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith; but since faith came we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through your faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized in Christ have armed yourselves in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs by the promise.
11 But I am saying, that as long as the heir is a child, even if he is head of the whole household he is no better than a slave; he is under guardians and caretakers until the time, set by his father, when he comes of age. So we too when we were children were enslaved to the elements of the world; but in the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those who were under the law so that we may be given our adoption. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his son to our hearts crying Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then heir, because of God.
Now at that time you did not know God and were enslaved to beings which are not by nature gods; but now, when you do know God, or rather are knownwn by God, how is it that you tum back to the weak and beggarly elements, and want to be their slaves once more? You keep count of days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored on you in vain.
Be as I am, brothers, I pray you, because I am as you are. You did me no wrong. You know that I was sick in body when I brought you the gospel before; and when I was a trial to you, because of my physical state, you did not despise or reject me, but received me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus. Where then is your delight in me gone? For I testify to you that if you could have, you would have dug out your eyes and given them to me. Then have I turned into your enemy by telling the truth? They are zealous for your favor, not fairly, but they wish to keep you in seclusion, so that you may be zealous for their favor. To be honorably favored, not only when I am there with you, is always good, my children, whom I am laboring to give birth to once more until Christ takes shape in you. But I wish I could be with you now, and change my way of speaking; because I do not know what to do about you.
Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave girl and one by the free woman. But the one by the slave girl was begotten in the flesh, and the one by the free woman through the promise. These are allegories. For the women are the two covenants: one is from Mount Sinai, breeding for slavery; this is Hagar, and Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, but she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is enslaved along with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free, and she is the mother of us. Since it is written: Rejoice, barren woman who bore no child; break forth and shout aloud, woman who had no labor pains; for the children of the deserted one shall be far more than hers who kept the husband.
Now we, brothers, are children by the promise, like Isaac. But just as then the one born in the flesh persecuted the one born in the spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave girl and her son, for the son of the slave girl shall never inherit with the son of the free woman. Thus, brothers, we are the children not of the slave girl but of the free woman.
Christ liberated us to freedom. Stand fast, then, and do not be caught again under the yoke of slavery.
Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you become circumcised Christ will do you no good. And I testify once more to every man who is circumcised that he is under obligation to perform all the law. All of you who justify yourselves by the law are lost to Christ; you have fallen from grace. For we are given hope of righteousness by the Spirit, from faith. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has force, but only faith working through love.
You were ^^ing well. Who broke your stride, so as to keep you from believing the truth? The temptation was not from him who called you. A little leavening raises the whole mass of dough. I believe in you, that, the Lord helping, you will not take the wrong view; but the one who is confusing you shall bear the blame, whoever he may be. If I, brothers, ^ still preaching circumcision, why ^ I still persecuted? Then the difficulty of the cross has been made void. I wish that those who are unsettling you would also castrate themselves.
You were called to freedom, brothers; only not freedom for the impulse of the flesh. Rather be enslaved to each other by love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one saying, that is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and try to devour each other, beware of being destroyed by each other. But I tell you, follow the spirit and do not fulfill the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has its desires, which oppose the spirit, and the spirit opposes the flesh; for these two are set as opposites to each other, to keep you from doing what you wish to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not subject to the law. And the works of the flesh are plain to see. They are lechery, viciousness, unchastity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, rages, ambitions, dissensions, partisanships, envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and that sort of thing. And I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who practice that sort of thing shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the harvest of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. The law is not against such things. But those who belong to Jesus crucify their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also follow the spirit. Let us not be vain-minded, challenging each other, envying each other.
Brothers, if a person is caught in some transgression, you, who are spiritual, must set him right in a spirit of gentleness; examining yourself, for fear you also may be tempted. Take up each other's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of the Christ. For if a man thinks he amounts to something and does not, he is deceiving himself; let each one evaluate his own actions, and then he will have cause for pride in himself alone and not in any other, for each one will carry his own burden.
And let the one who is being instructed in the word share in all good things with his instructor.
Do not be deceived: God is not made light of. For what a man sows, that he will also reap; because if he sows for his own flesh, he will reap, from the flesh, destruction; but he who sows for the spirit will reap, from the spirit, life everlasting. Let us not weaken in doing good, for at our proper time we shall reap, if we do not give out. So then, while we have time, let us do good to all, but especially to those who are of the family of the faith.
See with what big letters I have written in my own hand.
Those who wish to look well in the flesh are the ones who are trying to make you be circumcised, only so that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law; but they want you to be circumcised so that they can take pride in your bodies. But for us, let there be no pride except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified for me, and I for the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; only to be created anew does. And for all who follow this rule, peace and mercy to them, and to God's Israel.
Henceforth, let no one give me trouble; for I carry the stigmata of Jesus on my body.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
The Lett
er to the Ephesians
11PAUL, APOSTLE OF CHRIST JESUS BY the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and who believe in Christ Jesus: grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven, as he chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be pure and blameless in love in his presence; preordaining us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, by the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace he bestowed on us through his beloved son. We have our redemption through his blood, the remission of our sins, by the wealth of the grace which he made abundant for us, by complete wisdom and intelligence making known to us the mystery of his will; by the favor which he set forth in him, for his scheme for the fulfillment of the ages, that everything in heaven and on earth should be summed up in the Christ. It was he by whom we, preordained, received our inheritance by the plan of him who works all things according to the purpose of his will, so that we, the first to hope in Christ, must praise his glory. You too are with him; having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believing, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of the promise. This is the first installment of our inheritance, for our redemption as his property, and the praise of his glory.
I also, therefore, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and the love you have for all the saints, never cease to give thanks for you; and I remember you in my prayers, praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the recognition of him; that the eyes of your hearts may be filled with light, so that you may know what is the hope he calls you to, what is the wealth of glory in the inheritance he grants you among the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, by the working of the supremacy of his strength which he has realized in the Christ. This he did by raising him from the dead, and seating him by his right hand in the heavens, above every realm and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named not only in this age but in the age to come. And he put everything beneath his feet, and gave him headship entire over the church, which is his body, the fulfillment of him who fulfills all things in all.
You were dead men by reason of your transgressions and sins in which you once walked, following the Presence of this world, the lord of the dominion of the air, the spirit which is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And with you we too, all of us, once followed the desires of our flesh, doing the bidding of our flesh and our senses, and we were natural children of the wrath, like all the rest. But God, being rich in mercy through the great love he has for us, though we were dead by our transgressions, brought us to life along with Christ; you have been saved by grace; and he revived us, along with Christ Jesus, and seated us beside him in the heavens, to show to ages to come the surpassing abundance of his grace in his kindness to us through Christ Jesus. You have been saved by grace through faith. This does not come from you; God's is the gift; not from anything you have done; let no one be proud. We are his handiwork, made in Christ Jesus for the good works for which God readied us so that we should be active in them.
Remember, then, that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision, a thing done in the flesh by human hands; that at that time you were without Christ, shut out from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and godless in the world. But now through Christ Jesus you, who were once far off, are now near by the blood of the Christ. He himself is the peace between us. He made the two things one, who broke down the middle partitioning wall, the hatred, with his own body, who abolished the law of the co^mand- ments given in ordinances; to make the two men in him into one new man by establishing peace, and reconcile both, in one body, with God, killing the hatred in his own person by the cross. With his coming he announced the gospel of peace to you, who were far off, and peace to those who were near; because through him we have, both alike, access to the Father in a single Spirit.
You are, therefore, no longer foreigners and resident aliens, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God; built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, whose capstone is
Christ Jesus himself. By him all construction is made harmonious and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; into which you also are built as a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
Because of this, I, Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you, the Gentiles, say this to you. You must have heard of the stewardship of grace which was granted to me to bring to you. Through revelation a mystery was made known to me, as I have already written to you in a brief account; reading which, you can understand my insight into the mystery of the Christ. This was not made known to other generations of the sons of man as it has now been revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets; n^ely, that the Gentiles are co-heirs, incorporate, fellow sharers in the promise by Jesus Christ through his gospel. Of this I became a minister by God's gift of grace granted to me by the working of his power; to me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given, to bring to the Gentiles the gospel of the incalculable bounty of the Christ, and to bring to light the nature of the scheme of the mystery, which was hidden from the ages in God, who created all things; so that now the intricate wisdom of God may be made known, through the church, to all the realms and authorities in heaven. Al this is according to the eternal plan which he brought about in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have our confidence and access in trust because of our faith in him.
Therefore I ask you not to lose heart because of my sufferings for your sake. This is your glory.
Because of this, I bend my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is^ n^ed, praying that in the abundance of his glory he may grant that you be confirmed in strength, of the inward man, through his spirit, and that by your faith you make the Christ dwell in love in your hearts; that, rooted and founded, you may, with all the saints, have strength to understand the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ and know it, though it surpasses knowledge; so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
To him who can bring to pass all things far beyond what we ask or think of through the power which is at work in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all the generations forever and ever. Amen.
1, then, prisoner for the Lord, call upon you to proceed in a way worthy of the calling you received; with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with each other in love, striving to preserve your singleness of spirit by the bond of peace: one body and one spirit, as your calling involved one hope; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us was given a gift of grace in accordance with the measure of the Christ's giving.
Therefore scripture says: He went up to the height, and took many captives; and he gave gifts to men. But what does: He went up mean, unless he had also gone down to the nether parts of the earth? He who went down is the same as he who went up above all the heavens, to make all things complete. And the same one granted to some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers; all these for the training of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building of the body of the Christ, until we all attain to singleness of faith and knowledge of the son of God, to complete manhood and the measure of full maturity of the Christ. Thus we shall no longer be children storm- tossed and swept along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of people unscrupulous in contriving our misdirection; but truthfully and with love grow in all ways toward who is our head, Christ; dependent on whom the whole body, harmonized with itself a
nd joined together by every connective sinew, through the measured activity of every part, brings about the body's development toward its own completeness by love.
I tell you, then, and charge you by the Lord, to live no longer as the heathens do in the vanity of their minds, darkened as they are in their perceptions, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the impenetrability of their hearts. In their insensibility they have given themselves up to debauchery for the practice of every kind of vice, insatiably. This is not how you le^ed the Christ, if indeed you did hear him and were taught in him how the truth is in Jesus: namely, that you must put off, with your former way of life, your old person, the one co^pted by desire for pleasure, and be remade anew in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new person, the one created by God's will in true righteousness and piety.
Put aside falsehood, therefore, and each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, because we are members of each other. Aie you angry? Even so, do no wrong. Do not let the sun set on your anger; do not give the devil room. Let the thief steal no longer, but rather work hard with his hands to produce some good, so that he will have enough to share with one who is in need. Let no corrupt speech proceed from your mouth, but only what will help where it is needed, to bestow grace on those who hear you. And do not exasperate the Holy Spirit of God by which you have been sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and anger and rage and loud- ness and abuse be gone from you, with every kind of malice. Be kind and compassionate toward each other, forgiving each other as God through Christ forgave you.
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