Those who want to make a good showing in external matters ¹  are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so ²  only to avoid being persecuted ³  for the cross of Christ.

But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which ¹  the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

He has destroyed ¹  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ²  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ¹