Night Watch Devotion

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.
¹ It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
³ to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
⁴ For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
⁵ How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶ The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:
⁷ that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;
⁸ but you, O LORD, are on high forever.
⁹ For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
¹⁰ But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
¹⁵ to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
¹ As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
⁶ and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
⁸ By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
⁹ I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
¹ In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!
² Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!
³ For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
⁴ you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
⁵ Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
⁶ I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the LORD.
⁷ I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,
⁸ and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.
⁹ Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.
¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
¹¹ Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
¹² I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
¹³ For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
¹⁴ But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
¹⁵ My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
¹⁶ Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!
¹⁷ O LORD, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol.
¹⁸ Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.
¹⁹ Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!
²⁰ In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.
²¹ Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.
²² I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.
²³ Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!

A Maskil of David.
¹ Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
⁷ You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
⁹ Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
¹¹ Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

¹ Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
² Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
³ Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
⁴ For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
⁶ By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
⁸ Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
⁹ For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
¹⁰ The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹ The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
¹³ The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
¹⁴ from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵ he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶ The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷ The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹ that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
²⁰ Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
²¹ For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
²² Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (ESV)

¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (ESV)

¹ “Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
² Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
³ so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
⁴ When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is long, and I toss and turn till the dawn.
⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope.
⁷ “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.
⁸ The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
⁹ As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
¹⁰ he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.
¹¹ “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
¹³ When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’
¹⁴ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵ so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.
¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
¹⁷ What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,
¹⁸ visit him every morning and test him every moment?
¹⁹ How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
²⁰ If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?
²¹ Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.” (ESV)

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (ESV)

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
² For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them,
³ behold, the hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks.
⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’”
⁵ And the LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”
⁶ And the next day the LORD did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.
⁷ And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
⁸ And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.
⁹ It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”
¹⁰ So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast.
¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.
¹² But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
¹⁴ For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
¹⁵ For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
¹⁶ But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
¹⁷ You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.
¹⁸ Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
¹⁹ Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”’”
²⁰ Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses,
²¹ but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field.
²² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.”
²³ Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
²⁴ There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
²⁵ The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field.
²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
²⁷ Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
²⁸ Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”
²⁹ Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.”
³¹ (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud.
³² But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.)
³³ So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.
³⁴ But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
³⁵ So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
² and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
³ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
⁴ For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
⁵ and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field,
⁶ and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
⁷ Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
⁸ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?”
⁹ Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
¹⁰ But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.
¹¹ No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.”
¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
¹⁴ The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again.
¹⁵ They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
¹⁶ Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
¹⁷ Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.”
¹⁸ So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD.
¹⁹ And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.
²⁰ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
²¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.”
²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
²³ They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
²⁴ Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.”
²⁵ But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
²⁶ Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.”
²⁷ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.
²⁸ Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.”
²⁹ Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.” (ESV)

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.”
⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.”
⁷¹ And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
⁷² And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.”
⁷³ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.”
⁷⁴ Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed.
⁷⁵ And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

¹ When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
² And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
³ Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,
⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”
⁵ And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
⁶ But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”
⁷ So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.
⁸ Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
⁹ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,
¹⁰ and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.” (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
¹ May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
² May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!
³ May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
⁴ May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
⁵ May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!
⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
⁷ Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
⁸ They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
⁹ O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call. (ESV)

¹ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,
² and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.
³ But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
⁴ And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.
⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
⁶ Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you,
⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.
⁹ It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
¹¹ For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
¹² Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
¹³ As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.
¹⁴ If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.
¹⁵ Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
¹⁶ Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
¹⁷ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.
¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

¹ Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
² and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
⁴ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
⁵ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.
¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
¹³ For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
¹⁴ And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
¹⁵ But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
¹⁶ was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
²⁰ (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
²² And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
²³ They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.
¹ Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
² I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
³ But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
⁴ Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—
⁵ to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
⁶ And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.
⁷ On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised
⁸ (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles),
⁹ and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
¹⁰ Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
¹² For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
¹³ And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
¹⁴ But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
¹⁷ But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
¹ O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
² Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
⁵ Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
⁶ just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
¹⁰ For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
¹¹ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
¹² But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
¹⁵ To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
¹⁷ This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
²⁰ Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
²¹ Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
²² But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
²³ Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
²⁴ So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)