Galatians 5:23

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things.

Revised Standard Version
gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
meknes temperancye. Agaynst suche ther is no lawe.

Hebrew Names Version
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

New American Standard Bible
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

New Century Version
gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong.

Update Bible Version
meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.

Webster's Bible Translation
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

English Standard Version
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

World English Bible
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.

Weymouth's New Testament
good faith, meekness, self-restraint.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
benygnyte, goodnesse, myldenesse, feith, temperaunce, contynence, chastite; ayen suche thingis is no lawe.

English Revised Version
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Berean Standard Bible
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Contemporary English Version
gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.

Amplified Bible
gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

American Standard Version
meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.

Bible in Basic English
Gentle behaviour, control over desires: against such there is no law.

Complete Jewish Bible
humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

Darby Translation
meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law.

International Standard Version
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.1 Timothy 1:9;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
meekness, patience; against these the law is not set.

Murdock Translation
Against these there standeth no law.

King James Version (1611)
Meekenesse, temperance: against such there is no law.

New Living Translation
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

New Life Bible
being gentle, and being the boss over our own desires. The Law is not against these things.

New Revised Standard
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Meekenesse, temperancie: against such there is no lawe.

George Lamsa Translation
Meekness, self-control: there is no law against these.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
meekness, self-control; - against such things as these, there is no law.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Mekenesse, temperauncie: agaynst such there is no lawe.

Good News Translation
humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.

Christian Standard Bible®
gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

King James Version
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Lexham English Bible
gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law.

Literal Translation
meekness, self-control. Against such things there is not a law.

Young's Literal Translation
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
mekenesse, teperaunce, Agaynst soch is not ye lawe:

Mace New Testament (1729)
against such there is no law.

New English Translation
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

New King James Version
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Simplified Cowboy Version
humility, and self-control. There's no code against such things.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Legacy Standard Bible
gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

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

temperance: Acts 24:25, 1 Corinthians 9:25, Titus 1:8, Titus 2:2

against: 1 Timothy 1:9

Reciprocal: Nehemiah 9:20 - good Psalms 18:35 - gentleness Psalms 25:9 - meek Psalms 37:11 - the meek Psalms 92:14 - They Psalms 119:165 - Great Psalms 143:10 - thy spirit Ecclesiastes 2:26 - wisdom Song of Solomon 7:13 - at our Isaiah 11:4 - for the meek Isaiah 29:19 - meek Isaiah 42:21 - he will Jeremiah 31:33 - I will Jeremiah 33:6 - and will Ezekiel 36:27 - I will Hosea 14:8 - From me Matthew 3:8 - fruits Matthew 5:5 - the meek Matthew 13:8 - some an Matthew 13:23 - beareth Matthew 23:23 - the weightier Matthew 25:4 - oil Mark 4:20 - which John 3:21 - that his John 7:38 - out John 15:2 - may Acts 9:31 - and in Romans 7:4 - that we Romans 8:7 - for it Romans 8:23 - which have 1 Corinthians 6:11 - but ye are sanctified 1 Corinthians 9:21 - not 2 Corinthians 3:8 - the ministration Galatians 6:1 - in the Ephesians 4:2 - lowliness Ephesians 5:9 - the fruit Philippians 1:11 - filled Colossians 1:10 - fruitful Colossians 3:12 - mercies 1 Thessalonians 1:5 - in the 1 Thessalonians 2:7 - we 1 Timothy 5:25 - the good 1 Timothy 6:11 - righteousness Hebrews 6:9 - things Hebrews 12:11 - peaceable Hebrews 12:14 - Follow James 3:13 - with meekness James 3:17 - gentle 1 Peter 3:4 - a meek 2 Peter 1:6 - temperance

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Meekness,.... Humility and lowliness of mind, of which Christ is an eminent example and pattern; and which the Holy Spirit from him transcribes into the heart of a regenerate person; and lies in having mean thoughts of himself, in walking humbly with God, acknowledging every favour, being thankful for every blessing, and depending on his grace, and in behaving with modesty and humility among men. The last of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned is

temperance, or "continence"; and designs both chastity and sobriety, and particularly moderation in eating and drinking. It may be observed, that these fruits of the Spirit are opposed to the works of the flesh. So love is opposed to hatred; joy to emulations and envying; peace to variance, strife, and seditions; longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and meekness, to wrath and murders; faith to idolatry, witchcraft, and heresies; and temperance to adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunkenness, and revellings.

Against such there is no law; meaning, against such fruits, graces, and good things; these being perfectly agreeable to the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, and spiritual; and are so far from being forbidden by it, that they are highly esteemed and approved of by it: or against persons that are possessed of such fruits; for these appear to be in the spirit, and to be led by the Spirit; and therefore are not under the law, and have nothing to fear from it, as a terrifying, accusing, cursing, and condemning law. The works of the flesh, and they that are of the flesh, are such that come under the notice and lash of the law; and not the fruits of the Spirit, and they that are after the Spirit, as such are who partake of his fruit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Meekness - See the note at Matthew 5:5.

Temperance - The word used here, (ἐγκράτεια egkrateia), means properly “self-control, continence.” It is derived from ἐν en and κράτος kratos, “strength,” and has reference to the power or ascendancy which we have over exciting and evil passions of all kinds. It denotes the self-rule which a man has over the evil propensities of his nature. Our word temperance we use now in a much more limited sense, as referring mainly to abstinence from intoxicating drinks. But the word here used is employed in a much more extended signification. It includes the dominion over all evil propensities, and may denote continence, chastity, self-government, moderation in regard to all indulgences as well as abstinence from intoxicating drinks. See the word explained in the notes at Acts 24:25. The sense here is, that the influences of the Holy Spirit on the heart make a man moderate in all indulgences; teach him to restrain his passions, and to govern himself; to control his evil propensities, and to subdue all inordinate affection.

The Christian will not only abstain from intoxicating drinks, but from all exciting passions; he will be temperate in his manner of living, and in the government of his temper. This may be applied to temperance properly so called with us; but it should not be limited to that. A Christian must be a temperate man; and if the effect of his religion is not to produce this, it is false and vain. Abstinence from intoxicating drinks, as well as from all improper excitement, is demanded by the very genius of his religion, and on this subject there is no danger of drawing the cords too close. No one was ever injured by the strictest temperance, by total abstinence from ardent spirits, and from wine as a beverage; no man is certainly safe who does not abstain; no man, it is believed, can be in a proper frame of mind for religious duties who indulges in the habitual use of intoxicating drinks. Nothing does more scandal to religion than such indulgences; and, other things being equal, he is the most under the influence of the Spirit of God who is the most thoroughly a person of temperance.

Against such there is no law - That is, there is no law to condemn such persons. These are not the things which the Law denounces. These, therefore, are the true freemen; free from the condemning sentence of the Law, and free in the service of God. Law condemns sin; and they who evince the spirit here referred to are free from its denunciations.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 23. Meekness — πραοτης. Mildness, indulgence toward the weak and erring, patient suffering of injuries without feeling a spirit of revenge, an even balance of all tempers and passions, the entire opposite to anger.

Temperance — εγκρατεια. Continence, self-government, or moderation, principally with regard to sensual or animal appetites. Moderation in eating, drinking, sleeping, &c.

Several very respectable MSS., as D*EFG, with the Vulgate, most copies of the Itala and several of the fathers, add αγνεια, chastity. This we are sure cannot be separated from the genuine Christian character, though it may be included in the word εγκρατεια, continence or moderation, immediately preceding.

Against such there is no law. — Those, whose lives are adorned by the above virtues, cannot be condemned by any law, for the whole purpose and design of the moral law of God is fulfilled in those who have the Spirit of God, producing in their hearts and lives the preceding fruits.