| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, accompanied by Barnabas. I took Titus along also. | 1Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. |
| 2I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I spoke privately to those recognized as leaders, for fear that I was running or had already run in vain. | 2I 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. |
| 3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. | 3And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile. |
| 4This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. | 4Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really —who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. |
| 5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. | 5But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. |
| 6But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me. | 6And 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.) |
| 7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. | 7Instead, 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. |
| 8For the One who was at work in Peter’s apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in my apostleship to the Gentiles. | 8For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. |
| 9And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. | 9In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews. |
| 10They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. | 10Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do. Paul Confronts Peter |
| 11When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood to be condemned. | 11But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. |
| 12For 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, for fear of those in the circumcision group. | 12When 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. |
| 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. | 13As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. |
| 14When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” | 14When 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? |
| 15We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners” | 15“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. |
| 16know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. | 16Yet 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.” |
| 17But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not! | 17But 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! |
| 18If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker. | 18Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. |
| 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. | 19For 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. |
| 20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. | 20My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. |
| 21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing. | 21I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. |
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