| New King James Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. | 1Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. |
| 2And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had 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, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. | 3And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile. |
| 4And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), | 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. |
| 5to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue 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 from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something 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.) |
| 7But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter | 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. |
| 8(for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward 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 when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, 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 desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also 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 |
| 11Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; | 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 would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. | 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. |
| 13And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. | 13As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. |
| 14But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as 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 nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, | 15“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. |
| 16knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall 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.” |
| 17“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore 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! |
| 18For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. | 18Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. |
| 19For I through the law died to the law 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; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself 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, then Christ died in vain.” | 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. |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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