Study Desk

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem,^(a) this time with Barnabas.^(b) I took Titus^(c) along also.

I went in response to a revelation^(d) and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.^(e) I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race^(f) in vain.

Yet not even Titus,^(g) who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.^(h)

This matter arose because some false believers⁽ⁱ⁾ had infiltrated our ranks to spy on^(j) the freedom^(k) 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^(l) might be preserved for you.

As for those who were held in high esteem^(m)—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism⁽ⁿ⁾—they added nothing to my message.^(o)

On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task^(p) of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,^[a](q) just as Peter^(r) had been to the circumcised.^[b]

For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle^(s) to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle^(t) to the Gentiles.

James,^(u) Cephas^[c](v) and John, those esteemed as pillars,^(w) gave me and Barnabas^(x) the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.^(y) They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles,^(z) and they to the circumcised.

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,^(aa) the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

When Cephas^(ab) came to Antioch,^(ac) I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James,^(ad) he used to eat with the Gentiles.^(ae) 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.^(af)

The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas^(ag) was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,^(ah) I said to Cephas^(ai) in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.^(aj) How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?^(ak)

"We who are Jews by birth^(al) and not sinful Gentiles^(am)

know that a person is not justified by the works of the law,^(an) but by faith in Jesus Christ.^(ao) So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in^[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.^(ap)

"But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners,^(aq) doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!^(ar)

If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

"For through the law I died to the law^(as) so that I might live for God.^(at)

I have been crucified with Christ^(au) and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.^(av) The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,^(aw) who loved me^(ax) and gave himself for me.^(ay)

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law,^(az) Christ died for nothing!"^[e]