The Council at Jerusalem

15 Certain people^(A) came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers:^(B) “Unless you are circumcised,^(C) according to the custom taught by Moses,^(D) you cannot be saved.” ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem^(E) to see the apostles and elders^(F) about this question. ³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia^(G) and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.^(H) This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.^(I)

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party^(J) of the Pharisees^(K) stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”^(L)

No Other Gospel

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called^(A) you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel^(B)— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion^(C) and are trying to pervert^(D) the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,^(E) let them be under God’s curse!^{(F) 9} As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted,^(G) let them be under God’s curse!

¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people?^(H) If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Faith or Works of the Law

3 You foolish^(A) Galatians!^(B) Who has bewitched you?^(C) Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.^{(D) 2} I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit^(E) by the works of the law,^(F) or by believing what you heard?^{(G) 3} Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?^{[a] 4} Have you experienced^[b] so much in vain—if it really was in vain? ⁵ So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles^(H) among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?^(I)

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,^(A) which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world^(B) rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness^(C) of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head^(D) over every power and authority.^{(E) 11} In him you were also circumcised^(F) with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b](G) was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism,^(H) in which you were also raised with him^(I) through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.^(J)

¹³ When you were dead in your sins^(K) and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[d] alive^(L) with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,^{(M) 14} having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,^(N) which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.^{(O) 15} And having disarmed the powers and authorities,^(P) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them^(Q) by the cross.^[e]

Freedom From Human Rules

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you^(R) by what you eat or drink,^(S) or with regard to a religious festival,^(T) a New Moon celebration^(U) or a Sabbath day.^{(V) 17} These are a shadow of the things that were to come;^(W) the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(X) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(Y) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head,^(Z) from whom the whole body,^(AA) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(AB)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(AC) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(AD) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(AE) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(AF) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^{(AG) 23} Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(AH) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.