Montgomery - Galatians

Chapter 1

1:1  Paul, an apostle sent not from men nor by any man, but by Jesus Christ and by God the Father who raised him from the dead;

1:2  with all the brothers who are with me. To the churches of Galatia greeting.

1:3  Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

1:4  who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age in accordance with the will of our God and Father,

1:5  to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

1:6  I am amazed that you are so soon shifting your ground, and deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ,

1:7  for another gospel, which indeed is not another; only there are certain individuals who are troubling you, and desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ.

1:8  But even though I myself or an angel from heaven were to preach any gospel other than that which I did preach to you, let him be accursed.

1:9  I have said it before, and I now repeat it, if any one is preaching a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

1:10  Think you that I am now trying to conciliate men or God? Or am I "seeking to please men"? If I were still seeking to please men, I should not be a slave of Christ.

1:11  For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel I preach is not man-made;

1:12  for neither did I myself receive it from man, nor by man was I taught it, but by a revelation an apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

1:13  For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how furiously I used to persecute the church of God, and how I kept seeking to root it out;

1:14  and how in my zeal for Judaism I outstripped many of my own age and nation, in my special zeal for the traditions of my forefathers.

1:15  But when God who had set me apart from my very birth,

1:16  and had called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach his gospel among the Gentiles, without consulting a human being,

1:17  or even going up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I went off at once to Arabia, and on my return came back to Damascus.

1:18  Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter, and spent two weeks with him.

1:19  I saw no other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother.

1:20  (In what I am now writing, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth.)

1:21  Then I went into the districts of Syria and Cilicia.

1:22  But to the churches of Christ in Judea I was personally unknown;

1:23  only they used to hear it said, "He who was once persecuting us is now preaching the gospel of the very faith which he once tried to ruin."

1:24  And they were giving glory to God on my account.

Chapter 2

2:1  Fourteen years later I went up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and took Titus also with me

2:2  (I went up at that time in obedience to a revelation). And I laid before them the gospel which I am wont to preach among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those in authority, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

2:3  But although Titus, my companion, was a Greek, they did not compel even him to be circumcised.

2:4  Yet there were false brethren who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us again.

2:5  To them we did not yield submission even for an hour, in order that the truth of the gospel might abide unshaken among you.

2:6  But those in authority - what they once were makes no difference to me; God is no respecter of persons - those I say who were in authority had no additions to make my message.

2:7  On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter has with the gospel for the circumcised

2:8  (for he who has equipped Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised, equipped me also for the apostleship to the Gentiles),

2:9  and when they recognized the grace which had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, then thought to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.

2:10  They stipulated only that we should remember the poor, which very thing indeed I was quite eager to do.

2:11  But when Cephas came to Antioch I resisted him to his face, because he stood self-condemned.

2:12  For until certain men came from James he used to eat with the Gentile Christians, but when they came, he began to draw back and to separate himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

2:13  And the rest of the Jewish Christians also dissimulated with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

2:14  But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, in the presence of the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all. "If you, although you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you try to compel the Gentiles to become Jews?

2:15  "We are Jews by birth, and not ‘Gentile sinners’;

2:16  "yet because we know that no man is justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we ourselves also have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; for "By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

2:17  But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves also have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? Far from it!

2:18  For if I am rebuilding the very things which I destroyed, I am proving myself a transgressor.

2:19  For it is through law I died to law, in order to live to God.

2:20  I have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer I who am living, but it is Christ who is living in me; and the life I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

2:21  I do not annul the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by way of the Law, then indeed Christ died Christ for nothing.

Chapter 3

3:1  O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? You, before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was placarded as crucified!

3:2  Answer me this one question. "When you received the Spirit, was it from doing what the Law commands or from believing the message heard?"

3:3  Are you so without sense? After beginning with the Spirit, will you now end with the flesh?

3:4  Did you have such experience to no purpose - if indeed it was really to no purpose?

3:5  Does he then who supplies you with his Spirit and works miracles among you, do it because you do what the law commands of because you believe the message heard?

3:6  Even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness?

3:7  Notice then that the true sons of Abraham are children of faith.

3:8  And the Scripture, anticipating God’s justification of the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand in the words, In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed.

3:9  So then they who are children of faith are blessed with Abraham the faithful;

3:10  but a curse rests on those who have their root in the works of the Law; for it is written. Cursed is every one that continues not in all the things written in the Book of the Law, to do them.

3:11  And it is manifest that by the Law no man is justified in the sight of God. because The just shall live by faith,

3:12  and the Law has nothing to do with faith, but declares, The man that has done these things shall live therein.

3:13  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is every one who is hanged upon a tree),

3:14  to the end that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

3:15  Let me illustrate, brothers, from every-day life. When once a human testament is made, and formally ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it.

3:16  Now it was to Abraham that the promises were spoken, and to his offspring. God did not say, "offsprings" as if speaking of many, but "and to your offspring," as of one; and this is Christ.

3:17  I mean to say that the testament which God has already ratified could not be annulled by the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the Promise void.

3:18  For if the inheritance comes from law, it no longer comes from a promise; but God did give it as a free gift to Abraham by a promise.

3:19  To what purpose, then, was the Law? It was imposed later for the sake of transgressions, until the "Offspring" should come to whom the promise had been made. It was arranged through angels by the hand of a mediator.

3:20  (Now a mediator implies more than one person, but God is only one.)

3:21  Is the Law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would actually have come from law;

3:22  but the Scripture has shut up the whole world in prison together under sin, in order that the promise due to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith.

3:23  Before the Faith came we were perpetual prisoners under the Law, in preparation for the destined faith about to be revealed.

3:24  So the Law has been our tutor-slave our pedagogue to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith;

3:25  but now that the Faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor-slave.

3:26  You are all sons of God through your faith in Jesus Christ.

3:27  For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.

3:28  In him there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

3:29  And if you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.

Chapter 4

4:1  What I mean is this. As long as the heir is a child, he differs in no respect from a slave, though he be the owner of the whole inheritance;

4:2  but is under the control of guardians and trustees, until the time appointed by his father.

4:3  So we Jews also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the empty externalities of the world.

4:4  But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law,

4:5  to redeem from captivity those under law, in order that we might receive our sonship.

4:6  And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Dear, dear Father!"

4:7  So each one of you is no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir, too, through God’s grace.

4:8  But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

4:9  Now, however, when you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are beginning to turn back to those weak and beggarly externalities, eager to be in bondage to them again?

4:10  You are scrupulous, are you, in observing "days" and "months" and "seasons" and "years"?

4:11  I am alarmed about you for fear lest I may have bestowed labor on you to no purpose.

4:12  Brothers, I beseech you, become as I am, because I also have become as you are. You never did me any wrong;

4:13  on the contrary, you know that although it was illness which brought about my preaching the gospel to you at my first visit,

4:14  and although my bodily affliction was a trial to you, you did not scoff at it nor spurn me, but welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself.

4:15  Why then did you account yourselves so happy? (For I bear you witness that if you could you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me.)

4:16  Am I then become your enemy, because I am telling you the truth?

4:17  These men are courting your favor to no good purpose. They want to isolate you, so that you will be courting their favor.

4:18  It is always an honorable thing to have your favor sought in an honorable cause, always, and not only when I am with you.

4:19  O my little children, of whom I travail again in birth until Christ be formed within you!

4:20  How I wish I could be with you now, that I might change my tone; for I am perplexed about you.

4:21  Tell me, you who wish to be subject to the Law, why do you not listen to the Law?

4:22  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman;

4:23  but while the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, the son by the free woman was born in fulfilment of a promise.

4:24  Now all this is an allegory, for these women are the two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, which is Hagar bearing children into bondage

4:25  (for the word Hagar stands for Mt. Sinai in Arabia and represents the present Jerusalem who with her children is in bondage.)

4:26  But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, O thou barren one who dost never bear, Break forth in joy, thou that dost not travail; For the children of the desolate woman are many. Yea, more than hers who has a husband.

4:28  But you, brothers, are like Isaac, children of the promise;

4:29  but just as in old times the son born by the flesh used to persecute the son born by the power of the Spirit, so also it is now.

4:30  But what does the Scripture say? Send away the slave-woman and her son; for the slave’s son shall not be heir along with the son of the free woman.

4:31  So, brothers, we are the children of no slave woman, but of free woman. For freedom did not Christ set us free;

Chapter 5

5:1  stand firm then, and do not be again entangled in a yoke of bondage.

5:2  Listen to me! I, Paul, declare to you that if you are to continue to follow the rite of circumcision, Christ will be no profit to you.

5:3  I solemnly testify to every man who submits to circumcision that he obligates himself to keep the whole Law.

5:4  If you are being justified by law, you are cut off from Christ; you are fallen away from grace.

5:5  But we are not, for we through the Spirit are eagerly waiting by faith for a hope of righteousness (a hope well founded);

5:6  because in Christ neither circumcision has any value, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love.

5:7  You were running your race nobly. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

5:8  The influence brought to bear does not come from him who is calling you.

5:9  A little leaven is leavening the whole lump.

5:10  As for me, I am fully trusting you in the Lord that you will be no otherwise minded; but he who is trying to unsettle you will have to bear his punishment, whoever he may be.

5:11  But I, brothers, if I "still preach circumcision," why am I still persecuted? Then surely the stumbling-block of the Cross has ceased to be an obstacle!

5:12  Would to God that those who are trying to unsettle you would even have themselves mutilated.

5:13  For you, brothers, were called for freedom; only do not make your freedom an excuse for self-indulgence, but in love enslave yourselves to one another.

5:14  For the whole Law has been fulfilled in this one precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

5:15  But if you are always biting and devouring one another, take heed lest you be utterly consumed one by another.

5:16  This is my meaning. Let your steps be guided by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

5:17  For the desire of the flesh is against that of the Spirit, and the desire of the Spirit is against that of the flesh, for they two are antagonistic, so that you may not do those things that you wish.

5:18  But if you are habitually led by the Spirit you are not under law.

5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest; such, for instance, as fornication, impurity, indecency,

5:20  idol-worship, sorcery, quarrels, party-spirit, jealousy, passionate anger, intrigues, factions, sectarianism,

5:21  envy, drunkenness, revelings, and things like these. I tell you beforehand, as I have already told you, that those who practise such sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

5:22  But the harvest-fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control;

5:23  against such there is no law.

5:24  And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and appetites.

5:25  If we are living by the Spirit, let us also keep step in the Spirit.

5:26  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Chapter 6

6:1  Even if any one should be overtaken in a fault, brothers, you that are spiritual ought, in a gentle spirit, to restore such a one, each one of you looking to himself, lest you too be tempted.

6:2  Ever be bearing one another’s burdens, and so be fulfilling the law of Christ.

6:3  If a man fancies himself to be somebody when he is really nobody he is deceiving himself.

6:4  Let each one test his own work, and he will then have something to be proud of by comparing himself with himself, and not with any one else;

6:5  for every one must carry his own pack load.

6:6  He, however, who is being taught in the message, should always share with his instructor in all the good things which he possesses.

6:7  Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

6:8  The man who is sowing to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who is sowing to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life eternal.

6:9  And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

6:10  So then, as we have opportunity, let is do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith.

6:11  See with what large letters I have written to you in my own handwriting!

6:12  Those who are trying to compel you to be circumcised are such as wish to make a fair show in the flesh, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

6:13  Even those who are being circumcised, are not themselves keeping the Law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may glory in your flesh.

6:14  God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world has been crucified to me and I have been crucified to the world.

6:15  For in Jesus Christ neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

6:16  On all who will govern their lives by this rule and on the Israel of God may peace and mercy rest.

6:17  From this time forth let no one trouble me, for I bear branded in my body the marks of Jesus, my Master.

6:18  May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.