BWE - Galatians

Chapter 1

1:1  I am Paul the apostle, a messenger from God. Men did not call me to be an apostle. Men did not make me an apostle. Jesus Christ and God the Father made me an apostle. It was the same God the Father who raised Jesus from death.

1:2  All the Christian brothers who are with me and I, send greetings. To the churches in the province of Galatia:

1:3  May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you with his loving kindness and give you peace.

1:4  Christ gave his life to pay for the wrong things we have done. He did this to set us free from the wrong ways of this world. This is what our God and Father wanted him to do.

1:5  All the praise for this belongs to God for ever and ever. Yes, it does!

1:6  I am very much surprised. It is so soon, and you are leaving God who called you by the love of Christ. Instead you are listening to another good news.

1:7  There is really no other good news. But some people are making you think wrong things. They want to change the good news of Christ.

1:8  We are wrong if we tell you a different kind of good news. Even an angel from heaven is wrong to tell you something different. Let a punishment from God come upon us if we tell you a different kind of good news.

1:9  We have said it before, and I say it again now. A curse be on any one who tells you a kind of good news which is not the good news we have already told you.

1:10  Now, am I trying to please men or God? If I were still trying to please men, then I would not be the servant of Christ.

1:11  My brothers, I want you to know this. The good news which I told you is not man’s good news.

1:12  No man told it to me. No man taught it to me. But it was Jesus Christ who showed it to me.

1:13  You have heard how I lived while I was still under the law of the Jews. I troubled the church of God very much. And I even tried to stop the church people altogether.

1:14  I knew more about the law of the Jews than many of my own age among my people. I wanted much more than they did to obey the laws which our fathers passed down to us, even the ones that were not written.

1:15  But God chose me to be an apostle before I was born. And he called me by his love.

1:16  God wanted to show his Son to me so that I might tell people who are not Jews about him. I did not go and ask any other person about the good news.

1:17  I did not go to Jerusalem to the men who were apostles before I was. But I went away into the country of Arabia. Then afterwards, I came back to the city of Damascus.

1:18  Three years later, I went to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.

1:19  James, the brother of the Lord, was the only other apostle I saw. I did not see any of the other apostles.

1:20  God knows that what I am writing to you is not a lie.

1:21  After I had been at Jerusalem, I went to the countries of Syria and Cilicia.

1:22  At that time the churches of Christ in Judea did not know me. They had never seen me.

1:23  They only heard people say, ‘This is the man who used to trouble us and he is now telling others to believe what he once tried to stop.’

1:24  And they praised God for what had happened to me.

Chapter 2

2:1  Fourteen years later I went to Jerusalem again. This time I went with Barnabas and I took Titus with me.

2:2  God showed me that I should go. And I told them about the good news which I tell to people who are not Jews. I told those who seemed to be church leaders when I was alone with them. I did not want my work to come to nothing–the work I had done or the work I was doing.

2:3  Titus was with me. He was not a Jew, but they did not force him to be circumcised.

2:4  But some men got in who were not true brothers. They came in secretly to spy on us to find out things about us. They did not want us to be free the way Christ Jesus has made us free. But they wanted to make us obey the old laws again.

2:5  But we did not let them tell us what to do, no, not even for one minute. In that way the real good news will be yours always.

2:6  Those men who seemed to be leaders did not teach me anything new. It does not matter to me who they were. God does not love some people more than others.

2:7  No, the leaders saw that God called me to take the good news to those who are not circumcised.

2:8  The same God who made Peter an apostle to the Jews made me an apostle to those who are not Jews.

2:9  The leaders saw that God had blessed me. James, Peter, and John seemed to be leaders in the church. They saw that God had blessed me. So they accepted Barnabas and me as fellow workers. They agreed that we should go to the people who were not Jews and they themselves would go to the Jews.

2:10  One thing they asked us to do was to help the poor Christians. I was very glad to do this.

2:11  One day Peter came to the city of Antioch. Then I had to tell him face to face that he had done wrong. He really was wrong!

2:12  Here is what happened. Peter ate with those who were not Jews. Then some men came whom James had sent. When they came he stopped eating with those who were not Jews. He was afraid of what the Jews might think.

2:13  All the other Jewish Christians did the same as Peter did. They acted as if it was not right to eat with those who were not Jews. Even Barnabas did the same.

2:14  But I saw they were not doing right. They were not obeying the true teaching of the good news. So I said to Peter in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew. But you live the way people do who are not Jews. How then can you force those who are not Jews to live the way the Jews do?’

2:15  We ourselves were born Jews. We are not of those who still follow wrong ways, those who are not Jews.

2:16  Yet we know that God does not call a man good because he tries to obey the law of the Jews. But we know that God puts a man right because he believes in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Jesus Christ. And we are put right with God because we believe in Christ and not because we obey the law. No person will ever be called good by God just because he tries to obey the law of the Jews.

2:17  We came to Christ to be put right with God. That showed us how much we had been bad men. Was it Christ who made us bad men? No, surely not!

2:18  If I build up again what I once broke down, I do wrong.

2:19  Through the law I died. Now the law has no power over me so that I may live for God.

2:20  I died when Christ died on a cross. I do not live now, but Christ lives in me. Now while I still live in my body, I live by believing in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself for me.

2:21  So I do not make the love of God useless. But if a person can be made good by the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Chapter 3

3:1  O you Galatians, have you no sense at all? Who has fooled you? You knew, just as if you had seen him with your own eyes, that Jesus Christ was killed on a cross.

3:2  Here is one thing I want to ask you. You received the Holy Spirit. Was that because you obeyed the law? No, it was because you heard God’s word and believed it.

3:3  Have you no sense at all? You began living your new life by the power of the Spirit. And are you now trying to finish living it by your own power?

3:4  So many things happened to you. Was it all for nothing? Surely it was not for nothing.

3:5  God gives you the Spirit. He does wonderful works among you. Does he do this because you obey the law? No, he does it because you heard the word of God and believed it.

3:6  So it was with Abraham. The holy writings say ‘He believed God, and that was why God called him a good man.’

3:7  You see then, the people who believe God are children of Abraham.

3:8  The holy writings say that he will put people right with himself if they believe him, even those who are not Jews. It was written down before God did it. The holy writings told the good news to Abraham ahead of time. It said, ‘God will make you a blessing to all nations and people.’

3:9  Abraham believed God and was blessed. And so those who believe God are blessed too, along with him.

3:10  A curse is on all people who are trying to become good by obeying the law. The holy writings say, ‘Everyone is cursed who does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the law and do it.’

3:11  Now, you can see this. No man is called a good man by God because he obeys the law. The holy writings say, ‘Those who are right with God shall live by faith.’

3:12  The law does not ask people to believe. It says, ‘He who obeys the laws will live because of them.’

3:13  Christ has saved us from the curse which the law put on us. He took the curse on himself. It should have been on us. The holy writings say, ‘A curse be on everyone who hangs on a tree!’

3:14  Christ Jesus did this so that those who are not Jews will have the blessing which Abraham had. He did this so that when we believe, we will receive the Spirit who was promised to us.

3:15  My brothers, it is the same as when a man makes a promise. He makes it good and strong. Then no one can break it or add anything to it.

3:16  God made his promises to Abraham and to his Son. The promise does not have the words, ‘and to his sons,’ for that means many sons. But it says, ‘and to his Son,’ and that Son is Christ.

3:17  Here is what I mean. The law was given four hundred and thirty years after God gave that promise to Abraham. But it cannot break the strong promise which God made. And the law cannot change God’s promise.

3:18  Do we get what God has promised us by obeying the law? If we do, then we are not getting it by his promise. But God gave it to Abraham by his promise.

3:19  Why then was the law made? God gave it after he made the promise, because so many people were doing what was wrong. The law was to be in power only until the Son came, the one to whom the promise was made. The law was handed down by God’s angels with the help of a middle man.

3:20  To need the help of a middle man there must be more than one person making the agreement. But God is the only one who made the promise.

3:21  Is the law against the promises of God? No, it is not! If a law had been given that could give people life, then surely people would have become good people by the law.

3:22  But the holy writings say it is like this. The whole world is in prison, kept there by the wrong things they have done. This was done so that people who believe in Jesus Christ would have the blessing. This blessing was promised to those who believe.

3:23  Before one came for us to believe in, the law held us in prison like slaves. We were kept there until the one to believe in should come.

3:24  The law watched over us, as if we were children, until Christ came. Then God would put us right with himself through faith in Christ.

3:25  But now that one has come for us to believe in, the law does not watch over us any longer.

3:26  You are all God’s children because you have believed in Christ Jesus.

3:27  All of you who have been baptised into Christ have taken Christ as your own.

3:28  There is no longer any difference between a Jew and one who is not a Jew; between a slave and a free man; between a man and a woman. When you are in the body of Christ Jesus, you are all alike.

3:29  If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s children. And if you are Abraham’s children, you will receive the blessing that God has promised.

Chapter 4

4:1  Here is what I mean. When a man dies, his son is to receive his property. As long as the son is not grown up, he cannot have it. He has no more right than a servant, even though he really owns all the property.

4:2  He still has people who take care of him and he must obey them until the time set by his father.

4:3  So it is with us. Before we were grown up, we were like servants. We were just beginning to learn about the things of this world.

4:4  But when the right time came, God sent his Son to make us free. He was born by a woman during the time when men had to obey the law.

4:5  God sent him to set the people free who were under the law. God sent him so that we would receive our rights as sons of God.

4:6  Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit calls out, ‘Father!’

4:7  So then, because of what God has done, you are no longer a slave but you are a son. And because you are a son, you will receive what he promised.

4:8  At first, you did not know God. At that time you obeyed things which are not real gods.

4:9  But now you know God. That is, God knows you. Then why do you turn to things that are weak and can do no good? Do you want to obey them again?

4:10  You have holy days, holy months, holy seasons, and holy years.

4:11  I fear that all my work for you has been for nothing.

4:12  My brothers, I beg you, be like me because I am like you. You did me no wrong.

4:13  You know that I was sick when I first told you the good news.

4:14  My sickness troubled you. But you did not think wrongly of me or turn away from me. You received me as if I were an angel from God, as if I were Christ Jesus.

4:15  Why are you not happy any more? I saw myself that you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if you could do such a thing.

4:16  Do you hate me because I tell you the truth?

4:17  Other people are trying hard to get you on their side. But they do not mean to help you. They want to get you away from Christ so that you will listen to them.

4:18  Of course, it is good if someone tries to help you, but only if it is for a good reason. It is always good, not only when I am with you.

4:19  My dear children, I feel pain for you again, like a mother when her child is being born. I will feel pain until Christ lives in your heart.

4:20  I wish I could be with you now, and not have to talk this way. But I am troubled about you.

4:21  Tell me, you people that want the law to control you, why do you not listen to the law?

4:22  The holy writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was the son of the slave woman. The other one was the son of the free woman.

4:23  The child of the slave woman was born as any child is born. But the child of the free woman was born because God promised he would be born.

4:24  These things have another meaning. These two women are like two agreements. One agreement came from Mount Sinai. The children are born slaves. That agreement is like Hagar.

4:25  So Hagar means Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is like the city of Jerusalem today, because Jerusalem is a slave and her children are too.

4:26  But the city of Jerusalem in heaven is free, and that is our mother.

4:27  The holy writings say, ‘The woman who has not had a child, be happy! You who do not feel the pain of bearing a child, open your mouth and shout. The woman who is left alone has more children than the woman who has a husband!’

4:28  My brothers, we are like Isaac. We are born because God made a promise.

4:29  Abraham’s child who was born as any child is born, troubled the other child who was born by the Spirit. It is that way today.

4:30  But what does the holy writings say? They says, ‘Put away the slave woman and her son. The son of the slave woman will have nothing when the father dies. The son of the free woman will have everything.’

4:31  So, my brothers, we are not the children of the slave woman, but we are children of the free woman.

Chapter 5

5:1  Christ has made us really free. So, stay free! Do not let yourselves be made slaves again.

5:2  I, Paul, say to you again that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ is no help to you at all.

5:3  Again I say to every man who is circumcised, he must obey all the law.

5:4  Some of you are trying to obey the law, so that God will call you good. If you do this, you have been cut off from Christ. You have lost the blessing of God.

5:5  But we hope to be made right by believing in Christ. The Spirit helps us to do this.

5:6  So if a man belongs to Christ Jesus, it does not matter if he is circumcised or not. He must show by his love that he believes.

5:7  You were doing well. Who stopped you from doing what is right?

5:8  God calls you but he is not the one who made you change your minds.

5:9  Even a little yeast makes all the bread rise.

5:10  The Lord makes me sure that you will not think any other way. But the teacher who is troubling your minds will be punished. It does not matter who he is.

5:11  My brothers, am I still telling people to be circumcised? If I am, why are people still troubling me? If it were true, the cross of Christ, which they do not like, has lost its power.

5:12  These teachers are troubling your minds. How I wish they would cut themselves off!

5:13  You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not take that to mean that you can do as you please. But work for each other because you love each other.

5:14  This one law is the whole law: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’

5:15  But if you bite and chew each other, be careful, or you will be killed by each other.

5:16  So I say, let the Spirit tell you what you should do. Then you will not do the wrong things you yourselves want to do.

5:17  People want to do wrong things that the Spirit does not want them to do. And the Spirit wants people to do things they do not want to do. The Spirit and the wrong things you want to do are against each other, so that you do not do what you yourself want to do.

5:18  If you do what the Spirit wants you to do, then you will be free from the law.

5:19  It is easy to see the wrong things people want to do. Both married people and those who are not married commit adultery. People make themselves unclean because of their wrong use of sex. They do things they should be ashamed of doing.

5:20  They worship idols. They use witch-power. They hate. They quarrel. They are jealous. They get angry. They want their own way. They do not agree together and they join different groups against each other.

5:21  They want what other people have. They even kill. They drink too much strong drink. They like to take part in loud drinking and dancing. They do other things like these. I have told you before and I tell you again. Those who do these things will not be in the kingdom of God.

5:22  But these are the things which the Spirit wants you to show: love, joy, peace, patience, being kind, being good, being true, being gentle, and keeping the body under control. There is no law that says, ‘These things are wrong.’

5:23  But these are the things which the Spirit wants you to show: love, joy, peace, patience, being kind, being good, being true, being gentle, and keeping the body under control. There is no law that says, ‘These things are wrong.’

5:24  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have stopped doing the wrong things they want to do. They have stopped them just as if they were killed on a cross. And they have even stopped wanting to do them.

5:25  The Spirit gives us life. And so we should do what the Spirit wants us to do.

5:26  We must not be proud of ourselves. We must not make one another angry. We must not want what other people have.

Chapter 6

6:1  My brothers, perhaps a man has done something wrong. If so, you who are strong in the Spirit must help him to do the right thing again. Help him in a gentle way. Take care yourself, that you are not tried and will want to do wrong.

6:2  Help each other in your troubles. In that way you obey Christ’s law.

6:3  A man who thinks that he is an important person when he is not, that man fools himself.

6:4  Let every man test his own work. Then he will be proud of his own work. He will not be proud because he thinks his own work is better than someone else’s work.

6:5  Each man must carry his own load.

6:6  People are taught the word of God. They should give some of all the good things they have to those who teach them.

6:7  Do not be fooled about this. God cannot be fooled. A man gets what he plants.

6:8  The man who plants the wrong things he wants to do will get death, because of those wrong things. But the person who plants what the Spirit wants him to do will live for ever, because of the Spirit.

6:9  We must not get tired of doing good things. If we do not stop doing them, we will get something back when the right time comes.

6:10  So then, when we can, we should do good to all people. But most of all, we should do it to those who are in God’s family.

6:11  (See, I am writing this to you in big letters with my own hand.)

6:12  Some people want to do things that can be seen. They try to force you to be circumcised. They want to hide from trouble which would come to them if they talk about the cross of Christ.

6:13  Even those who are circumcised do not obey the law. But they want you to be circumcised. Then they can be proud that they made you do it.

6:14  But I will not be proud of anything but of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of it, the things of the world have become dead to me, and I have become dead to the world.

6:15  It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not, but he must become a new person.

6:16  May all who live by this rule have peace. And may God bless them. They are the true people of Israel and they belong to God.

6:17  From now on, please do not trouble me. For I have marks on my body that show I belong to the Lord Jesus.

6:18  My brothers, may the kindness and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bless your spirit. May he do it!