Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.

Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law.

So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.

It does not matter at all whether or not one is circumcised; what does matter is being a new creature.

If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.

And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised.

Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is.

Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.

As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.

"When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne,

He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left.

I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes,

The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?

When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?'

We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death.

For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is firm.

It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going.

It was faith that made Abraham offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test. Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice.

Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death---and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death.

My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you?

What good is there in your saying to them, "God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!"---if you don't give them the necessities of life?

But someone will say, "One person has faith, another has actions." My answer is, "Show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions."

You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?

Can't you see? His faith and his actions worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions.

You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone.

So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead.

You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,

We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.

This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!

My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.

If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything.

There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.