18. Do not boast over the branches and pride yourself at their expense. If you do boast and feel superior, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root [that supports] you.
19. You will say then, Branches were broken (pruned) off so that I might be grafted in!
20. That is true. But they were broken (pruned) off because of their unbelief (their lack of real faith), and you are established through faith [because you do believe]. So do not become proud and conceited, but rather stand in awe and be reverently afraid.
21. For if God did not spare the natural branches [because of unbelief], neither will He spare you [if you are guilty of the same offense].
22. Then note and appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's gracious kindness to you–provided you continue in His grace and abide in His kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off (pruned away).
23. And even those others [the fallen branches, Jews], if they do not persist in [clinging to] their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.