The Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:5–21)
2 UDB We did this because God had told me we should go. I explained privately to the most important leaders of the believers the content of the good news that I had been proclaiming in the regions of the Gentiles. I did this because I wanted to make sure that they approved of what I had been preaching. I wanted to make sure that I had not been working uselessly. BSB BSB: I 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.
3 UDB But those leaders did not even require Titus, who was with me and was an uncircumcised Gentile, to be circumcised. BSB BSB: Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
4 UDB The people who would have required him to be circumcised were not true believers, but they pretended that they were fellow believers. They watched us closely to see how we obey God without following all the Jewish laws and rituals, since we know that Christ Jesus has freed us from those things. These false believers would like to make us like slaves to the law. BSB BSB: This 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.
5 UDB But not even briefly did we agree with them about circumcision. We resisted them in order that the true good news about Christ might continue to benefit you. BSB BSB: We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
6 UDB But those who others said were the leaders did not add anything to what I proclaim. Those leaders are important men, but they do not matter to me, because God does not favor certain persons more than others. BSB BSB: But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me.
7 UDB Instead, the leaders understood that God was trusting me to proclaim the good news to the Gentiles, just as Peter was proclaiming the good news to the Jews. BSB BSB: On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.
8 UDB For just as God had empowered Peter to go as an apostle to take God's message to the Jews, he also empowered me to go as an apostle to take his message to the Gentiles. BSB BSB: For the One who was at work in Peter’s apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in my apostleship to the Gentiles.
9 UDB Those leaders understood that God had kindly given to me this special mission. So James, Peter, and John, the leaders of the believers in Christ—the same leaders that many people knew and honored—they were the ones who shook hands with us because we were fellow workers with them. We agreed that God had sent us to the Gentiles—that is, to those who were not circumcised, and that God had sent them to the Jews—that is, to those who were circumcised. BSB BSB: And 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. 10 UDB They only urged us to still remember to help the poor among the fellow believers who live in Jerusalem. That is exactly what I have been eager to do. BSB BSB: They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Confronts Cephas 11 UDB But later while I was in the city of Antioch, after Peter came there, I looked into his eyes and told him that what he was doing was wrong. BSB BSB: When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
12 UDB This is what happened. James sent some people to Antioch. These people were willing to eat meals with the Gentiles. But later, they changed their minds and they would not eat with them and they separated themselves from the Gentiles. They thought that circumcision must be practiced by all believers, Jews and Gentiles, and they refused to have fellowship with Gentiles who were not circumcised. BSB BSB: For 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.
13 UDB Also, the rest of the Jews in Antioch joined in Peter's hypocrisy by separating themselves from the Gentile believers. Even Barnabas thought he had to stop associating with the Gentiles! BSB BSB: The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 UDB But when I realized that they were not following the truth of the good news about Christ, and when all the fellow believers had come together, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are Jewish, but you have been living like a Gentile who does not follow the law. So how can you possibly persuade the Gentiles to live like Jews?" BSB BSB: When 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?”
15 UDB We were Jews by birth, and not Gentile sinners. BSB BSB: We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners”
16 UDB But we now know that it is not because a person obeys the law that God gave to Moses that God makes a person right in his sight. God does that only if that person trusts in Jesus Christ. Even some of us Jews have trusted Christ Jesus. We did that so God would declare us right in his sight because we trust Christ and not because we try to obey the law that God gave to Moses. God has said that he will not declare anyone good in his sight just because they obey the law. BSB BSB: know 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.
17 UDB But when we asked God to make us right in his sight by trusting in Christ, we stopped trying to obey the law, so the law proved us to be sinners for doing that. But this certainly does not mean that Christ is in favor of sin. Certainly not! BSB BSB: But 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!
18 UDB If I again believed that God would make me right in his sight because I obey his law, I would be like a man who rebuilds a shaky old building that he had once torn down. Everyone would see that I was breaking God's law. BSB BSB: If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.
19 UDB As I was trying to obey God's law, I became like a dead man; it was as if the law had killed me. This happened so that I might live to worship God. BSB BSB: For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
20 UDB It is as though my old way of life ended when Christ died on the cross. I no longer direct my life. Christ, who lives in my heart, now directs how I live. And whatever I do now while I live, I do it trusting in God's Son. He is the one who loved me and offered himself as the sacrifice to provide God's forgiveness to me. BSB BSB: I 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.
21 UDB I do not set aside God's kindness, as if keeping the law could make us right with God. Otherwise, Christ would have died on the cross for nothing. BSB BSB: I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.