Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.
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.
- BSB Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.
- NKJV Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
- 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 in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
- Gal 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
- 1 Jn 2:3–4This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
- 1 Jn 3:22–24and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.
- Rom 2:25–29For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- Rev 22:14Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
- Col 3:11where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
- 1 Cor 8:8But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
- John 15:14You are my friends, if you do whatever 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, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Jer 7:22–23For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
- Rom 3:30since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
- Matt 5:19Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
- 1 Sam 15:22Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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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