For you have heard of my former way of life ¹  in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it.

I ¹  was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, ²  and was ³  extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ⁴ 

But when the one ¹  who set me apart from birth ²  and called me by his grace was pleased

to reveal his Son in ¹  me so that I could preach him ²  among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from ³  any human being, ⁴ 

Until ¹  certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this ²  and separated himself ³  because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. ⁴ 

But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ¹  basic forces? ²  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ³ 

and though my physical condition put you to the test, you did not despise or reject me. ¹  Instead, you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, ²  as though I were Christ Jesus himself! ³ 

envying, ¹  murder, ²  drunkenness, carousing, ³  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

yet we know ¹  that no one ²  is justified by the works of the law ³  but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. ⁴  And ⁵  we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ ⁶  and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one ⁷  will be justified.

who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father,

I went there ¹  because of ²  a revelation and presented ³  to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so ⁴  only in a private meeting with the influential people, ⁵  to make sure that I was not running – or had not run ⁶  – in vain.

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ¹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ²  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ¹  so as to invalidate the promise.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave ¹  nor free, there is neither male nor female ²  – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; ¹  break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.” ² 

But what does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” ¹  of the free woman.

I have been crucified with Christ, ¹  and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So ²  the life I now live in the body, ³  I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, ⁴  who loved me and gave himself for me.