I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,
Parallel translations
- KJV Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
- BSB I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.
- NKJV Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.
- NASB I beg of you, brothers and sisters, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;
- NLT Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws. You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you.
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
Paul pleads with the Galatians to become as he is, free from the law, just as he had become like them to reach them. He appeals to their past kindness and his genuine love.
Overview
Shifting from rebuke to tender appeal, Paul urges them to share his freedom from legal bondage. As one who, though a Jew, lived in the liberty of the gospel, he had identified with them; now he asks them not to abandon that freedom. The reminder that they had done him 'no wrong' begins a warm recollection of their former affection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 2 Cor 2:5But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all.
- 1 Kgs 22:4He said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
- 1 Cor 9:20–23To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;
- Gen 34:15Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;
- 2 Cor 6:13Now in return, I speak as to my children, you also be open wide.
- Acts 21:21They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs.
- Gal 6:14But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
- Gal 2:14But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?
- Phil 3:7–8However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.
- Gal 6:18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Resources, by level
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 4:12 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.