New Testament
Galatians 5
Overview
"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (5:1)—the chapter opens with the letter's thesis for Christian living. Paul warns bluntly that if they accept circumcision to be justified, "Christ will be of no advantage to you" (5:2) and they are "severed from Christ" and "fallen away from grace" (5:4); the only thing that counts is "faith working through love" (5:6). He suspects an outside agitator and trusts the Galatians will not be persuaded (5:7-12), ending with a sharp wish that those troubling them would "emasculate themselves." Then comes the great turn: freedom is not license—"through love serve one another," for the whole law is fulfilled in "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (5:13-14). Paul sets the decisive ethical principle: "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (5:16), for the flesh and the Spirit are at war. He lists the works of the flesh (sexual immorality, idolatry, strife, envy, drunkenness, and more) that bar one from the kingdom, then the ninefold "fruit of the Spirit"—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (5:22-23)—concluding that those who belong to Christ "have crucified the flesh" and must "keep in step with the Spirit" (5:24-25).
1Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
3Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
5For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.
7You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?
8This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
9A little yeast grows through the whole lump.
10I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.
12I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.
13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
15But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.
16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.
18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,
21envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
25If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
26Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.