| New Living Translation | King James Bible |
| 1Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. | 1Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. |
| 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. | 2And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. |
| 3And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile. | 3But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: |
| 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. | 4And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: |
| 5But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. | 5To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. |
| 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.) | 6But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me: |
| 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. | 7But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; |
| 8For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. | 8(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) |
| 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. | 9And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. |
| 10Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do. Paul Confronts Peter | 10Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do. |
| 11But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. | 11But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. |
| 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. | 12For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. |
| 13As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. | 13And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. |
| 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? | 14But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? |
| 15“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. | 15We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, |
| 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.” | 16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. |
| 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! | 17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. |
| 18Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. | 18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. |
| 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. | 19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. |
| 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. | 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. |
| 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. | 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
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