Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Galatians | Page 2

proclaim among the Gentiles.
To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private, lest
by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.
002:003 But although my companion Titus was a Greek they did not
insist upon even his being circumcised. 002:004 Yet there was danger
of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church,
who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus,
in order to rob us of it. 002:005 But not for an hour did we give way
and submit to them; in order that the Good News might continue with
you in its integrity. 002:006 From those leaders I gained nothing new.
Whether they were men of importance or not, matters nothing to me--
God recognizes no external distinctions. To me, at any rate, the leaders
imparted nothing new. 002:007 Indeed, when they saw that I was
entrusted with the preaching of the Good News to the Gentiles as Peter
had been with that to the Jews-- 002:008 for He who had been at work
within Peter with a view to his Apostleship to the Jews had also been at
work within me with a view to my Apostleship to the Gentiles--
002:009 and when they perceived the mission which was graciously
entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, Peter, and John, who were
considered to be the pillars of the Church) welcomed Barnabas and me

to their fellowship on the understanding that we were to go to the
Gentiles and they to the Jews. 002:010 Only they urged that we should
remember their poor--a thing which was uppermost in my own mind.
002:011 Now when Peter visited Antioch, I remonstrated with him to
his face, because he had incurred just censure. 002:012 For until certain
persons came from James he had been accustomed to eat with Gentiles;
but as soon as these persons came, he withdrew and separated himself
for fear of the Circumcision party. 002:013 And along with him the
other Jews also concealed their real opinions, so that even Barnabas
was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness. 002:014 As soon
as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in the spirit of the Good
News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you, though you are a Jew,
live as a Gentile does, and not as a Jew, how can you make the Gentiles
follow Jewish customs? 002:015 You and I, though we are Jews by
birth and not Gentile sinners, 002:016 know that it is not through
obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only
through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ
Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in
Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to
Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt. 002:017 But if
while we are seeking in Christ acquittal from guilt we ourselves are
convicted of sin, Christ then encourages us to sin! No, indeed. 002:018
Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had
demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor; 002:019
for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live
to God. 002:020 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I
that live, but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself up to death on my behalf. 002:021 I do not nullify the grace of
God; for if acquittal from guilt is obtainable through the Law, then
Christ has died in vain." 003:001 You foolish Galatians! Whose
sophistry has bewitched you-- you to whom Jesus Christ has been
vividly portrayed as on the Cross? 003:002 Answer me this one
question, "Is it on the ground of your obedience to the Law that you
received the Spirit, or is it because, when you heard, you believed?"
003:003 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now
going to reach perfection through what is external? 003:004 Have you

endured such sufferings to no purpose--if indeed it has been to no
purpose? 003:005 He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles
among you-- does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the
Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed: 003:006 even
as Abraham believed God, and his faith was placed to his account as
righteousness? 003:007 Notice therefore that those who possess faith
are true sons of Abraham. 003:008 And the Scripture, foreseeing