| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too. | 1Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. |
| 2I went there because of a revelation and presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so only in a private meeting with the influential people, to make sure that I was not running--or had not 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, although he was a Greek. | 3And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile. |
| 4Now this matter arose because of the false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves. | 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. |
| 5But we did not surrender to them even for a moment, in order 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 from those who were influential (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people)--those influential leaders added nothing to my message. | 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, when they saw that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter was 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. |
| 8(for he who empowered Peter for his apostleship to the circumcised also empowered me for 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 when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would 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 requested only that we remember the poor, the very thing 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 |
| 11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. | 11But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. |
| 12Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-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 joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by 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 behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, "If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force 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 are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, | 15“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. |
| 16yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the 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 seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin? Absolutely 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! |
| 18But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God's law. | 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 may 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 it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of 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 God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then 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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