—Galatians 5.1–12—

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brother, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!


As a man I do not find myself purchasing shampoo with much frequency. I do not possess a luxurious mane of hair to maintain. Yet occasionally I do run out of shampoo.

I find the shampoo section in the store quite intimidating. The only reason I can find to choose one brand over another is price, which is all well and good, but who knows what I could be missing in this brand, or this brand, or that brand. Part of me wants to believe that somewhere there exists a giant faucet that pours out all the shampoo in the world into a single vat to drain through an infinity of little nozzles into all the different brand names and types and specialties. Call me a shampoo conspiracy theorist.

Too much choice can lead to paralysis. Before I know it I've killed off 15 minutes staring at shampoo and still have nothing in hand.

In the race we run in pursuit of Jesus Christ, many times (if we are honest) we would prefer someone, anyone, to simply tell us exactly what we need to do. Even though Jesus deposited his spirit in us and set us loose to live, our lives still seem murky a lot of the time.

Paul is clear on what should guide us: "faith expressing itself through love."