But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
Parallel translations
- WEB But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.
- KJV But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
- NKJV But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
- NASB But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
- NLT But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
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
If they bite and devour one another, they risk destroying the whole community. Selfish strife, the opposite of love, is mutually ruinous.
Overview
Paul warns that the Galatians' conflicts, perhaps fueled by the legalism controversy, threaten to consume them like wild animals tearing at each other. This vividly contrasts with the loving service of verse 13. The verse cautions that abandoning love for quarreling endangers the very life of the church.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 3:3for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?
- Jas 3:14But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.
- Gal 5:26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.
- 2 Cor 11:20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face.
- 2 Cor 12:20For I am afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I wish, and you may not find me as you wish. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, rage, rivalry, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.
- 1 Cor 6:6–8Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!
- Isa 9:20–21They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
- Isa 11:13Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will no longer envy Judah, nor will Judah harass Ephraim.
- Isa 11:5–9Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.
- Phil 3:2Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
- 2 Sam 2:26–27Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 5:15 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.