GalatiansChapter 2

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹Fourteen years later I went up to Jerusalem again. Barnabas went with me. I took Titus along too. ²I went because God showed me I should go. I explained to them the good news that I preach among the Gentiles. But I spoke in private to the men known as leaders. I was afraid that I was running my race for nothing, or had already run it for nothing. ³Titus was with me, and he was a Greek. But even he was not forced to be circumcised. ⁴This problem came up because some false brothers had sneaked in. They came to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves. ⁵We did not give in to them, not even for a moment. We wanted the truth of the good news to stay with you. ⁶Some men there were thought to be very important. What they once were makes no difference to me. God does not play favorites. Those leaders added nothing to what I preach. ⁷Just the opposite! They saw that God had trusted me to preach the good news to those who are not circumcised. In the same way, he had trusted Peter to preach to the circumcised. ⁸God was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised. The same God was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. ⁹James, Cephas, and John were known as pillars of the church. They saw the grace God had given me. So they shook hands with me and Barnabas as partners. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they should go to the circumcised. ¹⁰They only asked us to keep remembering the poor. That was the very thing I was eager to do. ¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I stood up against him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²Before some men came from James, Cephas used to eat with the Gentiles. But when those men came, he began to pull back. He kept himself apart from the Gentiles. He was afraid of the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in pretending. Because of their pretending, even Barnabas was led the wrong way. ¹⁴I saw that they were not living in line with the truth of the good news. So I spoke to Cephas in front of them all. I said, "You are a Jew. If you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" ¹⁵We were born as Jews. We are not Gentile "sinners." ¹⁶But we know that a person is not made right with God by doing what the law says. A person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus. We did this so we could be made right with God by faith in Christ, and not by doing what the law says. This is because no one will be made right with God by doing what the law says. ¹⁷We are looking to be made right with God in Christ. But what if this shows that we ourselves are sinners? Does that make Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸If I build up again what I already tore down, I show that I am a lawbreaker. ¹⁹Through the law, I died to the law. I did this so I could live for God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I now live my life in this body by faith in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not push God's grace aside. If people could be made right with God through the law, then Christ died for nothing.