Paul Appeals to the Emperor

¹Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem,

²where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought their charges against Paul. They begged Festus

³to do them the favor of having Paul come to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way.

⁴Festus answered, “Paul is being kept a prisoner in Caesarea, and I myself will be going back there soon.

⁵Let your leaders go to Caesarea with me and accuse the man if he has done anything wrong.”

⁶Festus spent another eight or ten days with them and then went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the judgment court and ordered Paul to be brought in.

⁷When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood around him and started making many serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove.

⁸But Paul defended himself: “I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple or against the Roman Emperor.”

⁹But Festus wanted to gain favor with the Jews, so he asked Paul, “Would you be willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges before me there?”

¹⁰Paul said, “I am standing before the Emperor's own judgment court, where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you yourself well know.

¹¹If I have broken the law and done something for which I deserve the death penalty, I do not ask to escape it. But if there is no truth in the charges they bring against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to the Emperor.”

¹²Then Festus, after conferring with his advisers, answered, “You have appealed to the Emperor, so to the Emperor you will go.”

Paul before Agrippa and Bernice

¹³Some time later King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to pay a visit of welcome to Festus.

¹⁴After they had been there several days, Festus explained Paul's situation to the king: “There is a man here who was left a prisoner by Felix;

¹⁵and when I went to Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests and elders brought charges against him and asked me to condemn him.

¹⁶But I told them that we Romans are not in the habit of handing over any who are accused of a crime before they have met their accusers face-to-face and have had the chance of defending themselves against the accusation.

¹⁷When they came here, then, I lost no time, but on the very next day I sat in the judgment court and ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸His opponents stood up, but they did not accuse him of any of the evil crimes that I thought they would.

¹⁹All they had were some arguments with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus, who has died; but Paul claims that he is alive.

²⁰I was undecided about how I could get information on these matters, so I asked Paul if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.

²¹But Paul appealed; he asked to be kept under guard and to let the Emperor decide his case. So I gave orders for him to be kept under guard until I could send him to the Emperor.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.” “You will hear him tomorrow,” Festus answered.

²³The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and ceremony and entered the audience hall with the military chiefs and the leading men of the city. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought in.

²⁴Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are here with us: You see this man against whom all the Jewish people, both here and in Jerusalem, have brought complaints to me. They scream that he should not live any longer.

²⁵But I could not find that he had done anything for which he deserved the death sentence. And since he himself made an appeal to the Emperor, I have decided to send him.

²⁶But I have nothing definite about him to write to the Emperor. So I have brought him here before you—and especially before you, King Agrippa!—so that, after investigating his case, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without clearly indicating the charges against him.”

¹But now to continue—the son who will receive his father's property is treated just like a slave while he is young, even though he really owns everything.

²While he is young, there are men who take care of him and manage his affairs until the time set by his father.

³In the same way, we too were slaves of the ruling spirits of the universe before we reached spiritual maturity.

⁴But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son. He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law,

⁵to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God's children.

⁶To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, “Father, my Father.”

⁷So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.

Paul's Concern for the Galatians

⁸In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

⁹But now that you know God—or, I should say, now that God knows you—how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

¹⁰You pay special attention to certain days, months, seasons, and years.

¹¹I am worried about you! Can it be that all my work for you has been for nothing?

¹²I beg you, my friends, be like me. After all, I am like you. You have not done me any wrong.

¹³You remember why I preached the gospel to you the first time; it was because I was sick.

¹⁴But even though my physical condition was a great trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you received me as you would an angel from heaven; you received me as you would Christ Jesus.

¹⁵You were so happy! What has happened? I myself can say that you would have taken out your own eyes, if you could, and given them to me.

¹⁶Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷Those other people show a deep interest in you, but their intentions are not good. All they want is to separate you from me, so that you will have the same interest in them as they have in you.

¹⁸Now, it is good to have such a deep interest if the purpose is good—this is true always, and not merely when I am with you.

¹⁹My dear children! Once again, just like a mother in childbirth, I feel the same kind of pain for you until Christ's nature is formed in you.

²⁰How I wish I were with you now, so that I could take a different attitude toward you. I am so worried about you!

The Example of Hagar and Sarah

²¹Let me ask those of you who want to be subject to the Law: do you not hear what the Law says?

²²It says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by a free woman.

²³His son by the slave woman was born in the usual way, but his son by the free woman was born as a result of God's promise.

²⁴These things can be understood as a figure: the two women represent two covenants. The one whose children are born in slavery is Hagar, and she represents the covenant made at Mount Sinai.

²⁵Hagar, who stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, is a figure of the present city of Jerusalem, in slavery with all its people.

²⁶But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother.

²⁷For the scripture says, “Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose husband never left her.”

²⁸Now, you, my friends, are God's children as a result of his promise, just as Isaac was.

²⁹At that time the son who was born in the usual way persecuted the one who was born because of God's Spirit; and it is the same now.

³⁰But what does the scripture say? It says, “Send the slave woman and her son away; for the son of the slave woman will not have a part of the father's property along with the son of the free woman.”

³¹So then, my friends, we are not the children of a slave woman but of a free woman.

Preserve Your Freedom

¹Freedom is what we have—Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

²Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.

³Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law.

⁴Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace.

⁵As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith.

⁶For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

⁷You were doing so well! Who made you stop obeying the truth? How did he persuade you?

⁸It was not done by God, who calls you.

⁹“It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say.

¹⁰But I still feel confident about you. Our life in union with the Lord makes me confident that you will not take a different view and that whoever is upsetting you will be punished by God.

¹¹But as for me, my friends, if I continue to preach that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were true, then my preaching about the cross of Christ would cause no trouble.

¹²I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!

¹³As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

¹⁴For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

¹⁵But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

The Spirit and Human Nature

¹⁶What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.

¹⁷For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.

¹⁸If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

¹⁹What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;

²⁰in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;

²¹they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

²²But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.

²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.

²⁵The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives.

²⁶We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.

Bear One Another's Burdens

¹My friends, if someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right; but you must do it in a gentle way. And keep an eye on yourselves, so that you will not be tempted, too.

²Help carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.

³If you think you are something when you really are nothing, you are only deceiving yourself.

⁴You should each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it with what someone else has done.

⁵For each of you have to carry your own load.

⁶If you are being taught the Christian message, you should share all the good things you have with your teacher.

⁷Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant.

⁸If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death; if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you will gather the harvest of eternal life.

⁹So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest.

¹⁰So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to our family in the faith.

Final Warning and Greeting

¹¹See what big letters I make as I write to you now with my own hand!

¹²The people who are trying to force you to be circumcised are the ones who want to show off and boast about external matters. They do it, however, only so that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

¹³Even those who practice circumcision do not obey the Law; they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast that you submitted to this physical ceremony.

¹⁴As for me, however, I will boast only about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; for by means of his cross the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world.

¹⁵It does not matter at all whether or not one is circumcised; what does matter is being a new creature.

¹⁶As for those who follow this rule in their lives, may peace and mercy be with them—with them and with all of God's people!

¹⁷To conclude: let no one give me any more trouble, because the scars I have on my body show that I am the slave of Jesus.

¹⁸May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, my friends. Amen.

¹⁵Correction and discipline are good for children. If they have their own way, they will make their mothers ashamed of them.

¹⁶When evil people are in power, crime increases. But the righteous will live to see the downfall of such people.

¹⁷Discipline your children and you can always be proud of them. They will never give you reason to be ashamed.