Galatians 5:24Plain English VersionYou see, sometimes doing bad things makes people feel good. But people that belong to Jesus Christ stop doing those bad things. That bad part inside them might make them feel like doing those bad things, but they don’t take any notice of it any more. It is like they nailed it to a cross and killed it. See the chapter |
Some of you say, “God made our bellies for food, and he made food to fill our bellies.” So you think that you can do what you want with your bodies, and it doesn’t matter. You think you can sleep with somebody that is not your wife or husband, as if you are married to them. But you are wrong. Don’t forget that, in the end, God will finish up your bellies, and he will finish up the food too. You see, God made your bodies for you to live his way. You can’t sleep with anyone you want to. You have to use your bodies the way God wants you to use them.
You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all joined to each other. You are not different from each other any more. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter if somebody keeps you like a prisoner, or if you are free. None of that matters. You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all the same as each other.
They respect the spirits that are not God. They try to get bad spirits to hurt other people. They hate other people, and they fight other people. They want to be like some other person, and if they can’t be, they hate that other person. They get very angry. They want to be more important than everybody else. They will not agree with other people, so they split off into separate groups.
And this is what God planned. He will be good to everyone that believes the good news about Jesus. It doesn’t matter if they are Jews, or not Jews. If they believe in Jesus, God will save them. Both will get what God promised. They both belong to the same mob now. They both belong to God, just like arms and legs belong to the same body.
You know that the Jewish people do a young man operation on their baby boys. Well, when you joined on to Jesus, God did something like that to you. He didn’t cut away a part of your body, but it was like he did an operation on your spirit. He cut away a bad part from your spirit. That was the bad part that made you want to do bad things.
My friends, you belong to God. You don’t belong to this world. Right now you are like strangers here in this world. So I’m telling you this really strongly. Sometimes you will really want to do something bad, like the people that belong to this world do, but you have to be strong and leave it. You will think, “I really want to do that bad thing,” but then you will think, “My spirit is telling me that it is the wrong thing to do.” So you’ve got to leave it.