Paul now expands the statement of verse 5. To be “in Christ Jesus” is to be united with him in faith and in fellowship. As has been noted in several other contexts, the expression “in Christ Jesus” may be rendered in various ways, for example, “one together with Christ Jesus,” “tied closely with Christ Jesus,” or “closely related to Christ Jesus.”

In this state, Paul does not find room for either circumcision nor the lack of it. The phrase translated makes any difference at all expresses the idea of irrelevance or insignificance (Jerusalem Bible “makes no difference”; Knox “means nothing.” New American Bible “neither … counts for anything”).

It is interesting that Paul here includes the lack of circumcision. He has been very harsh against those who have been advocating circumcision. Now he wants to make it clear that, on the other hand, he would not allow the Gentiles to use their state of uncircumcision as an occasion for claiming that they are in the right with God. If a man is in Christ Jesus, physical conditions of any kind are not essential to that relationship.

The phrase neither circumcision nor the lack of it must be rendered in some languages as conditional expressions, for example, “if a man is circumcised or if he is not circumcised,” or “if men have been circumcised or if they have never been circumcised.” The following expression makes any difference at all may then be rendered as “this does not make any difference,” or “it is all the same.” In some languages the same meaning may be communicated by a rendering such as “whether a man is circumcised or not makes no difference,” “… is all the same,” or “… is not important.”

If that is the case, then what is important? Paul says it is faith that works through love. “Faith” here once again is trust in, submission to, and commitment of oneself to Christ. This kind of faith works through love. (Paul’s mention of love here seems to anticipate what he is going to say later in verses 13 ff.) The verb phrase should probably be understood as “expresses itself through love” (New American Bible). Love should probably be understood primarily as care and concern for people, and not as a reference to God’s love for man or man’s love for God.

The expression what matters may be rendered as “but what is important” or “but what does make a difference.” The particular form of expression to introduce the final part of this verse will depend, of course, upon the corresponding form used in the immediately preceding clause.

In some languages it is quite impossible to use nouns such as faith and love as they occur in this verse, for faith and love do not do anything apart from the persons who have faith and who show love. Therefore one may translate this clause as “but what does make a difference is the fact that we (or, people) trust Christ, and this becomes evident through our (or, their) loving other people,” or “… showing love to other people.”

It is possible, however, to interpret the verb works as passive and to understand love in the sense of God’s love rather than human love. Faith that works through love would then mean “faith which is made effective by God’s love.” No translation, however, has this interpretation.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .