Day 69 of 90

^5:1Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. ^5:2Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. ^5:3Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ^5:4You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. ^5:5For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. ^5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love. ^5:7You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? ^5:8This persuasion is not from him who calls you. ^5:9A little yeast grows through the whole lump. ^5:10I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. ^5:11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. ^5:12I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off. ^5:13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. ^5:14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ^5:15But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another. ^5:16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. ^5:17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. ^5:18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ^5:19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, ^5:20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, ^5:21envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom. ^5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, ^5:23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ^5:24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. ^5:25If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. ^5:26Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another. ^6:1Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. ^6:2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ^6:3For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ^6:4But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. ^6:5For each man will bear his own burden. ^6:6But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. ^6:7Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ^6:8For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ^6:9Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up. ^6:10So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith. ^6:11See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand. ^6:12As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised, just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ^6:13For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, so that they may boast in your flesh. ^6:14But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ^6:15For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ^6:16As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel. ^6:17From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body. ^6:18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

^1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: ^1:2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ^1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ^1:4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, ^1:5having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, ^1:6to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved. ^1:7In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ^1:8which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ^1:9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him ^1:10to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. ^1:11We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, ^1:12to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. ^1:13In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ^1:14who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. ^1:15For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and the love which you have toward all the saints, ^1:16don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, ^1:17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, ^1:18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ^1:19and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might ^1:20which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, ^1:21far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. ^1:22He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, ^1:23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. ^2:1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, ^2:2in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ^2:3We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ^2:4But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ^2:5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ^2:6and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ^2:7that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; ^2:8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ^2:9not of works, that no one would boast. ^2:10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. ^2:11Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), ^2:12that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ^2:13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. ^2:14For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, ^2:15having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, ^2:16and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. ^2:17He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. ^2:18For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ^2:19So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, ^2:20being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; ^2:21in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ^2:22in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.