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The Other Cowboys Accept Paul

¹ Fourteen years later, I rode back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. ² I went there because God told me to. I met in private with the leaders of the outfit in Jerusalem and told them the same message I'd been giving to the outsiders. I wanted to be sure everyone agreed on the same message. I didn't want my past or future endeavors to be wasted.

³ They all agreed with me. They didn't even ask Titus, who was a Gentile outsider, to have his pickle clipped. ⁴ This was a topic of discussion though. It seemed some wolves dressed in cowboy clothes had come into the outfits and were spying on us. They wanted to take away all the freedom Jesus gave us. They wanted us to go back to following all the Jewish rules and codes. ⁵ Not only did we refuse, we didn't make one single compromise. The truth we gave you is the truth and it is the only truth that will save you.

⁶ Even those cowboys who were running the outfit couldn't think of a single thing to add to what I'd been telling folks. (Not that it would have mattered if they were running things or not. God doesn't have favorites.) ⁷ Instead, these leaders saw me as a cowboy who God had given the responsibility of taking the outside in this great gathering of souls. I was tasked with gathering the Gentile outsiders just like Pete had been called to gather the Jews. ⁸ The same Boss who worked through Pete is the same Boss who worked through me.

⁹ James, Pete, and John, who were looked at as the ramrods of the outfit in Jerusalem, recognized God's brand on my heart. They accepted Barnabas and I as cowboys equal to them. They told us to keep gathering the Gentile outsiders and they'd keep working on the Jews. ¹⁰ The only suggestion they made was that we keep looking after the poor. But we were already doing that and weren't going to stop.

Paul Chastises Pete

¹¹ But Pete messed up real bad when he came up to Antioch. I confronted him face to face like a man. ¹² When he first got there, he'd eat with everyone, even those without their pickles clipped. But some friends of James showed up and Pete wouldn't eat with the outsiders anymore. He didn't want to rock the boat with those who believed circumcision was necessary for salvation. ¹³ This kind of hypocrisy spread like a wildfire in dry grass. Even my buddy Barnabas started siding with these Jewish cowboys.

¹⁴ When I saw what was going on, I told Pete in front of everyone, "You were born a Jew and followed their ways, but now you ride for the brand and live like an outsider. Why then are you trying to get the outsiders to act like Jews and follow all their rules?

¹⁵ "Me and you were born Jews. The Jews like to say anyone not born a Jew is a sinner. Neither of us were born sinners. ¹⁶ We both know a cowboy is made right with God by his faith in Jesus, not by following the code of Moses. Both of us believe in Jesus and are right with God because of it, not by following the Code. You can't be right with God by following rules.

¹⁷ "So if we try to be right with God through faith in Jesus, and on the day of judgment we find out we should have obeyed the Code, would that mean Jesus caused us to sin? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! ¹⁸ I'd really be a sinner if I tried to make people do the things that I gave up when I signed on to ride for Jesus. ¹⁹ When I tried to keep the Code, I was condemned because I couldn't do it. So, I gave it all up and trusted Jesus did for me what I couldn't do for myself. Instead of being condemned by the code of Moses, I now live for the brand of God. ²⁰ My old life has been nailed to the cross with Jesus. I no longer live, but Christ lives within me. This earthly body only lives by trusting in the man who died to save me. ²¹ And I don't take the grace of God lightly. If we could be right with God by following rules, there'd be no use for Jesus."