Christ made us free, so Christians must not be circumcised
1Christ has made us free. That is why you must stay free. Do not let other people make you slaves to the laws again.
2I, Paul, am telling you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, then it does not help that you believe in Christ. 3Yes, I am telling you again: Everyone who lets himself be circumcised must do everything that all the laws say. 4Those of you who believe that God will make you righteous because you do what the laws say are wrong. If you believe like that, then you are no longer with Christ and you have lost the grace of God. 5We hope and we know that God will make us righteous because we have the Holy_Spirit and because we believe in Christ. 6If we belong to Christ Jesus, then it does not_matter if we are circumcised or not. What is important? It is important that we believe and that we love God and other people.
7You did what God wants, but now someone has stopped you and you don't do the things anymore that people do who know the truth. 8It is not God who has stopped you. No, God has called you and you are his children now. 9You must remember: A small piece of yeast makes all the dough rise. A little wrong teaching can make a big problem among all of you. 10I am sure that you will think like I do because together we belong to the Lord. God will punish the person who is confusing you. It does not_matter who he is.
11Friends, there are people who say that I tell believers to be circumcised, but that is not_true. I have told the believers not to be circumcised, and that is why some people make me suffer. If I had told the believers to be circumcised, then my message about the cross of Christ would not have been a problem for those people. 12I wish that all the people who are confusing you and telling you to be circumcised would cut their genitals off completely.
The Holy_Spirit wants to rule believers' lives
13Friends, God wants you to be free, but do not think that you are free to do the bad things which sinful people like to do. No, you must love and help each other. 14Because the message from all of God's laws says: ‘You must love other people as you love yourself.’
15But you don't do that. You are like dogs that bite each other. You must be careful that you do not destroy each other. 16I am telling you that the Holy_Spirit must rule over your lives. Then you will not do the bad things that some people want to do. 17Because the bad things in your hearts always want something different from what the Holy_Spirit wants. The Holy_Spirit wants something different from what the bad things in your hearts want. They are always against each other. That is why you can not do the things that you want to do. 18And if the Holy_Spirit rules over your lives, then the laws do not rule you anymore.
19Everyone knows what the bad things are that some people like to do: They live immorally, they have sex with people to whom they are not married, they do what they want to do, 20they serve idols, they use witchcraft, they are enemies of other people and they hate other people, they are jealous, they get angry very quickly, they argue with everyone, they make people angry with each other, they make people enemies of each other, 21they do not want other people to have more than they themselves have, they drink too much wine and become drunk, they have wild parties and they do other bad things. I have said this before and I will say it again: People who do these things will not have eternal_life, the life with God the King.
22But when the Holy_Spirit lives in people and rules over them, then their lives change: They love other people, they are pleased with them, they make peace, they are patient, they are friendly and good, they do what they promise, 23they do not become angry quickly, and they stay calm. The laws say that all of these things are good. 24Yes, the people who belong to Christ Jesus have stopped doing bad things. They do not want to sin any longer. 25The Holy_Spirit gave us the true_life. That is why we must ask the Spirit to rule over our lives. 26We must not think that we are better than other people or make them angry or be jealous of them.
