Galatians 5:15

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
If you continue hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.

Revised Standard Version
But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Yf ye byte and devoure one another: take hede lest ye be consumed one of another.

Hebrew Names Version
But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don't consume one another.

New American Standard Bible
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

New Century Version
If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.

Update Bible Version
But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed one of another.

Webster's Bible Translation
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one by another.

English Standard Version
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

World English Bible
But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don't consume one another.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed ye be not consumed one of another.

Weymouth's New Testament
But if you are perpetually snarling and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And if ye bite, and ete ech othere, se ye, lest ye be wastid ech fro othere.

English Revised Version
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Berean Standard Bible
But if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out, or you will be consumed by each other.

Contemporary English Version
But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.

Amplified Bible
But if you bite and devour one another [in bickering and strife], watch out that you [along with your entire fellowship] are not consumed by one another.

American Standard Version
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Bible in Basic English
But if you are given to fighting with one another, take care that you are not the cause of destruction one to another.

Complete Jewish Bible
but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!

Darby Translation
but if ye bite and devour one another, see that ye are not consumed one of another.

International Standard Version
But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not destroyed by each other.

Etheridge Translation
But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest one by another you be consumed.

Murdock Translation
But if ye bite and devour one another, beware, lest ye be consumed one by another.

King James Version (1611)
But if yee bite and deuoure one another, take heed ye be not consumed one of another.

New Living Translation
But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

New Life Bible
But if you hurt and make it hard for each other, watch out or you may be destroyed by each other.

New Revised Standard
If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If ye bite and deuoure one another, take heede least ye be consumed one of another.

George Lamsa Translation
But if you harm and plunder one another, take heed lest you be consumed one by another.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If, however, one another, ye bite and devour, take heed lest, by one another, ye be consumed!

Douay-Rheims Bible
But if you bite and devour one another: take heed you be not consumed one of another.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yf ye byte and deuoure one another, take heede lest ye be consumed one of another.

Good News Translation
But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

Christian Standard Bible®
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

King James Version
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Lexham English Bible
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Literal Translation
But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not consumed by one another.

Young's Literal Translation
and if one another ye do bite and devour, see -- that ye may not by one another be consumed.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But yf ye byte and deuoure one another, take hede, that ye be not consumed one of another.

Mace New Testament (1729)
but if you bite and tear one another, take heed that you be not consumed by one another.

New English Translation
However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.

New King James Version
But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Simplified Cowboy Version
But if y'all act like a bunch of hungry coyotes who are constantly biting and snarling at each other, don't be surprised when y'all are all chewed to pieces.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Legacy Standard Bible
But if you bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.

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

Galatians 5:26, 2 Samuel 2:26, 2 Samuel 2:27, Isaiah 9:20, Isaiah 9:21, Isaiah 11:5-9, Isaiah 11:13, 1 Corinthians 3:3, 1 Corinthians 6:6-8, 2 Corinthians 11:20, 2 Corinthians 12:20, James 3:14-18, James 4:1-3

Reciprocal: Judges 8:2 - What Judges 9:44 - rushed forward Judges 9:49 - put them Judges 12:6 - there fell 2 Samuel 19:43 - the words Psalms 14:4 - eat up Zechariah 11:14 - I cut Matthew 12:25 - Every kingdom Mark 3:25 - General Mark 9:50 - have peace Romans 13:13 - strife 1 Corinthians 1:11 - that there Philippians 2:3 - nothing Philippians 2:14 - disputings Philippians 3:2 - of dogs Colossians 3:8 - anger 1 Timothy 6:4 - words

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But if ye bite and devour one another,.... Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. The apostle does not say, if grievous wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but suggests if they themselves should act the part of wolves to one another; having reference to their controversies about the law and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, parties, and factions; and were attended with envy and malice, with reproachful words, biting sarcasms, scandalous invectives, and injurious actions, which must be of bad consequence: hence he adds,

take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and comfort be destroyed, which is oftentimes done this way, though a person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does remove, the candlestick out of its place.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But if ye bite - The word used here (δάκνω daknō), means, properly, to bite, to sting; and here seems to be used in the sense of contending and striving - a metaphor not improbably taken from dogs and wild beasts.

And devour one another - As wild beasts do. The sense is, “if you contend with each other;” and the reference is, probably, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts.

Take heed that ye be not consumed ... - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. Thus, the idea is, in their contentions they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each other; their characters would be ruined; and the church be overthrown. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 15. If ye bite and devour one another — These Churches seem to have been in a state of great distraction; there were continual altercations among them. They had fallen from the grace of the Gospel; and, as Christ no longer dwelt in their hearts by faith, pride, anger, ill-will, and all unkind and uncharitable tempers, took possession of their souls, and they were in consequence alternately destroying each other. Nothing is so destructive to the peace of man, and to the peace of the soul, as religious disputes; where they prevail, religion in general has little place.