“Freedom in Christ 5 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.
11 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.[b]
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. ”
ENCOURAGEMENT
Psalm 113
“Praise the Lord!
Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord! 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord now and forever. 3 Everywhere—from east to west— praise the name of the Lord. 4 For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.
5 Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? 6 He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth. 7 He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. 8 He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people! 9 He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother.
Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 114
“When the Israelites escaped from Egypt— when the family of Jacob left that foreign land— 2 the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom.
3 The Red Sea[a] saw them coming and hurried out of their way! The water of the Jordan River turned away. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs! 5 What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way? What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away? 6 Why, mountains, did you skip like rams? Why, hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. 8 He turned the rock into a pool of water; yes, a spring of water flowed from solid rock.”
