Jesus

My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.

Such persuasion does not come from the One who calls you.

I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be.

Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. They only do this to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ.

But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love

He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ

as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.

In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.