I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.
Parallel translations
- WEB I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,
- KJV Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
- 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 2:5Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it.
- 1 Kgs 22:4So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am like you, my people are your people, and my horses are your horses.”
- 1 Cor 9:20–23To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law.
- Gen 34:15We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.
- 2 Cor 6:13As a fair exchange, I ask you as my children: Open wide your hearts also.
- Acts 21:21But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.
- Gal 6:14But as for me, may I never 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 2:14When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
- Phil 3:7–8But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.
- Gal 6:18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.