New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.
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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.
2 Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
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Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law.
3 For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.
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If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
4 All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride.
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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.
5 For all must carry their own loads.
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Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
6 Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.
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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.
7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.
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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! -
8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
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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.
9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.
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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.
10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
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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.
11 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!
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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.
12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
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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.
13 Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.
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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!
14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
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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.
15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!
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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!
16 As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
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All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God - his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
17 From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
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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.
18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
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May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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.