The way of life Christians are to follow
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📚✭Therefore stand firm in the liberty for which Christ has set us free, and do not allow yourselves to be tied again to the yoke of bondage.2 📚✭Look, I, Paul✭, tell you that if you receive circumcision✭, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all. 3 📚✭For once again I solemnly declare to every man who receives circumcision, that he is duty bound to keep the whole Law. 4 📚Christ has been put at a distance from you✭, you who are trying to be justified by the Law. You have fallen away from grace✭. 5 📚For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness✭ which is by faith. 6 📚✭For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision can accomplish anything, but only faith that works through love.
7 📚You ran well✭. Who hindered you✭ that you should not obey the truth? 8 📚✭This persuasion does not come from the One who calls you. 9 📚✭A little yeast permeates the whole lump. 10 📚✭I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will have no other mind. But the one who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 📚✭And as for me, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution✭? For then the offense of the cross✭ has ceased. 12 📚I wish those who trouble you✭ would amputate themselves!
Serving by love
13 📚✭For, brethren, you have been called to liberty. But do not use liberty✭ as an opportunity for the flesh✭. Instead, with love serve one another. 14 📚✭For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. 15 📚✭But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by each other.
The struggle between God’s Spirit and the sinful nature in believers
16 📚So I say, walk✭ in the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh. 17 📚✭For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are opposed to one another, so that you cannot do what you want. 18 📚But if you are led by the Spirit✭, you are not under the Law✭.
The works of the “flesh” (sinful nature)
19 📚✭Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are these: adultery, fornication, impurity, lewdness, 20 📚idolatry✭, witchcraft✭, hatred, discord, jealousies, rage, selfish ambition, dissensions✭, heresies, 21 📚envy✭, murders, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. Concerning these I tell you in advance, just as I have told you in time past, that those who go on doing✭ such things will not inherit the kingdom of God✭.
The fruit of God’s Spirit
22 📚✭But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy✭, peace✭, patient endurance✭, kindness✭, goodness✭, faith✭, 23 📚meekness✭, self-control✭. Against such there is no law. 24 📚✭And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 📚✭If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 📚✭Let us not desire empty glory, provoking one another, envying one another.