Paul Accepted by the Other Apostles

1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

2I went up in response to a revelation and presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were held in high esteem, to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain.

3But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he is a Greek.

4Now this matter arose because of the false brothers who were secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us.

5But we did not yield to them in submission for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

6Now from those who were esteemed to be something (what sort of men they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show partiality)—those, I say, who were held in high esteem added nothing to me.

7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised.

8For he who worked through Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised also worked through me in my apostleship to the Gentiles.

9When James, Cephas, and John, who were esteemed as pillars of the church, recognized the grace given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and that they should go to the circumcised.

10They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul's Rebuke of Peter

11But when ⁶Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was blameworthy.

12For he regularly ate with the Gentiles until certain men came from James. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself because he was afraid of the circumcision faction.

13And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

14But when I saw that they were not walking uprightly in accordance with the truth of the gospel, I said to ⁷Peter in front of them all, “If yoʋ, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, ⁸why do yoʋ compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Justification by Faith

15We ⁹who are Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners

16know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in ¹⁰Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by works of the law.

17But if we ourselves have also been found to be sinners while seeking to be justified in Christ, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not!

18For if I build up again the very things that I tore down, I show myself to be a transgressor.

19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

21I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.