Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.
Parallel translations
- WEB Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
- KJV Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
- NKJV Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
- NASB Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.
- NLT For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is to keep God’s commandments.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Circumcision and uncircumcision count for nothing; what matters is keeping God's commandments. The outward badge is replaced by heartfelt obedience.
Overview
Paul strips the old covenant boundary marker of saving significance and relocates true religion in obedient love toward God. This is not a contradiction of justification by faith but its fruit: the believer, made new in Christ, keeps God's commands by the Spirit. The verse reinforces that the gospel transcends ethnic ritual and creates a people defined by obedience flowing from grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Gal 6:15For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.
- Gal 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.
- 1 Jn 2:3–4By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
- 1 Jn 3:22–24and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.
- Rom 2:25–29Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- Rev 22:14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.
- Col 3:11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
- 1 Cor 8:8But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
- John 15:14You are My friends if you do what I command you.
- 1 Jn 5:2–3By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.
- Gal 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Jer 7:22–23For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
- Rom 3:30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
- Matt 5:19So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
- 1 Sam 15:22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 7:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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