If a person believes in Christ Jesus, it doesn’t matter whether they’re circumcised or not. The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and started teaching the believers, “If you aren’t circumcised the way Moses commanded, you can’t be saved.”
The good news has been preached to us, just as it was to our people of long ago. But the message they heard didn’t do them any good, because they didn’t embrace it by faith when they heard it.
Brothers and sisters, if I’m preaching that people have to be circumcised, then why am I getting so much resistance? If I were preaching that, then no one would be offended that they had to trust only in what Jesus did for them on the cross.
I appeal to you by the humbleness and gentleness of Christ—I, Paul, the one you think is timid when I’m face to face with you, but bold when I’m away from you.