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Paul Accepted by the Apostles
Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
The Apostles Accept Paul
Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.
Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.
I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.
I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.
Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.
We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.
As for those who were held in high esteem — whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism — they added nothing to my message.
And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)
Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.
For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.
For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
Paul Opposes Cephas
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
Paul Confronts Peter
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.
For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles
“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”d
“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!
But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!
If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law — I stopped trying to meet all its requirements — so that I might live for God.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.