Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Galatians 2
Paul and the Jerusalem Leaders
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along too. I went up because of a revelation and set before them the good news I proclaim among the Gentiles—but privately before those considered leaders—to make sure I was not running, or had not run, in vain. Yet even Titus, who was with me and was Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised. The issue arose because of false brothers who had slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us. We did not yield to them in submission even for an hour, so that the truth of the good news might remain with you. As for those who were considered important—whatever they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show partiality—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised— for the one who worked through Peter for apostleship among the circumcised also worked through me among the Gentiles— and when James, Cephas, and John, who were considered pillars, recognized the grace given to me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only that we remember the poor—the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Confronts Cephas at Antioch
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself because he was afraid of those from the circumcision group. The rest of the Jewish believers joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not walking straight according to the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, though Jewish, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Set Right through the Faithfulness of Christ
We are Jews by birth and not sinners from among the Gentiles, yet we know that a person is not set right by works of the Law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So we too have trusted in Christ Jesus so that we might be set right through the faithfulness of Christ and not by works of the Law, because by works of the Law no flesh will be set right. But if, while seeking to be set right in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself a transgressor. Through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.