Galatians 5:14

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
The whole law is made complete in this one command: "Love your neighbor the same as you love yourself."

Revised Standard Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For all ye lawe is fulfilled in one worde which is this: thou shalt love thyne neghbour as thy selfe.

Hebrew Names Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

New American Standard Bible
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

New Century Version
The whole law is made complete in this one command: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Update Bible Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Webster's Bible Translation
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

English Standard Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

World English Bible
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Weymouth's New Testament
For the entire Law has been obeyed when you have kept the single precept, which says, "You are to love your fellow man equally with yourself."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For euery lawe is fulfillid in o word, Thou schalt loue thi neiybore as thi silf.

English Revised Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Berean Standard Bible
The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Contemporary English Version
All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself.

Amplified Bible
For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is fulfilled in one precept, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF [that is, you shall have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]."

American Standard Version
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Bible in Basic English
For all the law is made complete in one word, even in this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself.

Complete Jewish Bible
For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: "Love your neighbor as yourself";

Darby Translation
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;

International Standard Version
For the whole law is summarized in a single statement: "You must love your neighbor as yourself."Leviticus 19:18">[fn]Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 7:12; 22:39-40; Romans 13:8-9; James 2:8;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For all the law in one word is fulfilled, in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Murdock Translation
For the whole law is fulfilled in one sentence; in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

King James Version (1611)
For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, euen in this: Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe.

New Living Translation
For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

New Life Bible
You obey the whole Law when you do this one thing, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

New Revised Standard
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Geneva Bible (1587)
For all the Lawe is fulfilled in one worde, which is this, Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe.

George Lamsa Translation
For the whole law is fulfilled in one saying, that is; Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, the whole law, in one word, is summed up - namely in this, - Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For all the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For all the lawe is fulfylled in one worde, which is this: Thou shalt loue thy neyghbour as thy selfe.

Good News Translation
For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Christian Standard Bible®
For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

King James Version
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Lexham English Bible
For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Literal Translation
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in this : "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Lev. 19:18

Young's Literal Translation
for all the law in one word is fulfilled -- in this: `Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For all the lawe is fulfylled in one worde, namely in this: loue thy neghboure as thy selfe.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for all the law is comprehended in this one precept, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

New English Translation
For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, " You must love your neighbor as yourself ."

New King James Version
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Leviticus 19:18">[fn]

Simplified Cowboy Version
Even the old code of Moses can be summed up in one sentence, "Love yourself and others the same."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

Legacy Standard Bible
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Contextual Overview

¹³It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? ¹⁶My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? ¹⁹It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. ²²But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. ²⁴The Life of Freedom Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment. As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn't matter one way or the other. Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves! It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. ²⁵Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

all: Matthew 7:12, Matthew 19:18, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Matthew 22:40, Romans 13:8-10, James 2:8-11

Thou: Leviticus 19:18, Leviticus 19:34, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27-37, 1 Timothy 1:5

Reciprocal: Judges 8:2 - What Malachi 4:4 - the law Matthew 5:19 - do Matthew 5:43 - Thou Mark 9:50 - have peace Mark 10:19 - commit Luke 6:31 - General John 13:34 - That ye love Romans 2:27 - if it fulfil 1 Corinthians 9:21 - not 1 Corinthians 16:14 - General Galatians 5:13 - but Galatians 6:2 - Bear Ephesians 4:16 - edifying 1 Thessalonians 3:12 - love James 5:9 - Grudge not 1 John 2:7 - but 1 John 4:21 - General 2 John 1:6 - this is love

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For all the law is fulfilled in one word,.... Not the ceremonial law, to which acts of mercy, kindness, and love are opposed, and from which they are distinguished; but the law of the decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and by him to the people of the Jews; and intends either only the second table of it, since only love to the neighbour is mentioned; or else the whole of it, both tables, since it is said, "all the law"; which by Christ is reduced to two heads, love to God, and love to the neighbour; and though the former is not here expressed, it is implied as a cause in the effect, for the love of God is the cause, and so the evidence of love to the neighbour; nor can there be the one without the other. The two tables of the law consist of עשרת הדברים, "ten words"; as the s Jews commonly call them, and we the decalogue, and yet they are fulfilled in one; that is, they are to be brought into such a compendium, reduced to such an head; or as the apostle in a parallel place says, they may briefly be comprehended in this saying,

Romans 13:9. The Jews make the commandments of the law to be a very large number indeed, but at last reduce them to one, as the apostle here does,

"six hundred and thirteen commandments (they say t) were given to Moses----David came and reduced them to eleven, Psalm xv, Isaiah came and reduced them to six, Isaiah 33:15 Micah came and reduced them to three, Micah 6:8 Isaiah came and reduced them to two, Isaiah 56:1, Amos came and reduced them to one, Amos 5:4 but this being objected to, it is observed that Habakkuk came, וחעמידן על אחת, "and reduced them to one", Habakkuk 2:4 that is faith, as here the apostle reduces them to love:''

even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: these words are taken out of Leviticus 19:18 and which R. Akiba says u, agreeably with the apostle, whose contemporary he was, is כלל גדול בתורה, "the grand general rule in the law"; or the grand comprehensive of the law: the object of love, the "neighbour", signifies not only, as there the Jews explain it, those of their own people, or proselytes to their religion; but all sorts of men, whether in a natural, civil, or spiritual relation; and whether those that do us good or do us ill, friends or enemies: the measure or rule of love is, "as thyself"; and designs not an equality of affection, but a likeness of effects; that is, to do the same kind acts of love to others, one would choose to have done to ourselves: and this is the fulfilling of the law; that is, so far as a man loves aright, so far he fulfils the law; not that he does it perfectly, for man in his fallen state is unable to do that, for the law is exceeding broad, and reaches to thoughts, desires, and inclinations, as well as to words and deeds; and besides, love said to be the fulfilling of it, is imperfect; hence then there can be no justification by works of charity, nor by any services of men, which at best are imperfect; nor are they done in their own strength, and without the grace of God; nor is there any that can be said to have fulfilled the law perfectly but Christ, and to him must we look for a justifying righteousness. These words contain a reason engaging to love one another, and to do all kind of offices of love to each other; since it is a main and principal thing contained in the law, and to which that may be reduced.

s Exod. xxxiv. 28. Vid. Targum Onk. & Jon. in ib. t T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 23. 2. & 24. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 151. 1. u In Jarchi in Lev. xix. 18.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For all the law is fulfilled ... - That is, this expresses the substance of the whole law; it embraces and comprises all. The apostle of course here alludes to the Law in regard to our duty to our fellow-men, since that was the point which he particularly enforces. He is saying that this law would counteract all the evil workings of the flesh, and if this were fulfilled, all our duty to others would be discharged. A similar sentiment he has expressed in Romans 13:8-10; see the notes at that passage. The turn here in the discussion is worthy of particular notice. With great skill he changes the subject from a doctrinal argument to a strain of practical remark, and furnishes most important lessons for the right mode of overcoming our corrupt and sensual passions, and discharging our duty to others.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor ... - See this explained in the note at Matthew 19:19.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. For all the law — Which respects our duty to our fellows, is fulfilled-is comprehended, in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 19:19; Matthew 19:19, and "Romans 13:9".