Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church, who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus, in order to rob us of it.
But certain persons who had come down from Judaea tried to convince the brethren, saying, »Unless you are circumcised in accordance with the Mosaic custom, you cannot be saved.«
As we have been informed that certain persons who have gone out from among us have disturbed you by their teaching and have unsettled your minds, without having received any such instructions from us;
You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being –a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons– a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, »Abba! our Father!«
I have served Him by frequent travelling, amid dangers in crossing rivers, dangers from robbers; dangers from my own countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles; dangers in the city, dangers in the Desert, dangers by sea, dangers from spies in our midst;
This is Hagar; for the name Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, which is in bondage together with her children.
For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man –be he who he may– who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him.
Among them are included the men who make their way into private houses and carry off weak women as their prisoners–women who, weighed down by the burden of their sins, are led by ever-changing caprice,
But he who looks closely into the perfect Law –the Law of freedom– and continues looking, he, being not a hearer who forgets, but an obedient doer, will as the result of his obedience be blessed.
And they promise them freedom, although they are themselves the slaves of what is corrupt. For a man is the slave of any one by whom he has been worsted in fight.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but put the spirits to the test to see whether they are from God; for many false teachers have gone out into the world.
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed –men spoken of in ancient writings as pre-destined to this condemnation– ungodly men, who pervert the grace of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord.