The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out.
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Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2 Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law.
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Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
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For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
4 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others.
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But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
5 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
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For every man shall bear his own burden.
6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
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Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
7 Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others - ignoring God! -
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Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
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For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit.
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And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
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As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
11 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you.
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Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.
12 These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas.
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As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
13 They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
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For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
14 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.
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But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
15 Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do - submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!
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For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
16 All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God - his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
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And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
17 Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do - the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
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From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
18 May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
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Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. [To the Galatians written from Rome.]
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.