Letters to the Churches

Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Yerushalayim, for she serves as a slave along with her children.

But the Yerushalayim above is free, and she is our mother;

for the Tanakh says, “Rejoice, you barren woman who does not bear children! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the deserted wife will have more children than the one whose husband is with her!”

You, brothers, like Yitz’chak, are children referred to in a promise of God.

But just as then the one born according to limited human capability persecuted the one born through the Spirit’s supernatural power, so it is now.

Nevertheless, what does the Tanakh say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for by no means will the son of the slave woman inherit along with the son of the free woman!”

So, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words — I, Sha’ul, tell you that if you undergo b’rit-milah the Messiah will be of no advantage to you at all!

Again, I warn you: any man who undergoes b’rit-milah is obligated to observe the entire Torah!

You who are trying to be declared righteous by God through legalism have severed yourselves from the Messiah! You have fallen away from God’s grace!

For it is by the power of the Spirit, who works in us because we trust and are faithful, that we confidently expect our hope of attaining righteousness to be fulfilled.

When we are united with the Messiah Yeshua, neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised matters; what matters is trusting faithfulness expressing itself through love.

You were running the race well; who has stopped you from following the truth?

Whatever means of persuasion he used was not from the One who calls you.

“It takes only a little hametz to leaven the whole batch of dough.”

I am confident that since you are united with the Lord, you will take no other view; and I am confident that the one who has been disturbing you, whoever he may be, will have to bear his punishment.

And as for me, brothers, if I am still preaching that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were the case, my preaching about the execution-stake would cause no offense whatever.

I wish the people who are bothering you would go the whole way and castrate themselves!

For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love.

For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself”;

but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!

What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants.

For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions.

But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.