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“Not Even Titus...Was Required to Be Circumcised”
1 Fourteen years later, I went back up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and I had Titus come along, too.
2 Now, I went in obedience to a revelation and explained to them the gospel I proclaim among the Gentiles—in a private meeting with those regarded as important leaders, though, to make sure that my race, including my present and past work, would not somehow end up having been for nothing.+
3 Well, not even Titus, even though he is my own close associate,+ and a Gentile+ at that, was required to be circumcised.
4 Now this issue arose because of the false brothers, who did what? Who wormed their way into our group,+ slipping in unnoticed so that they could spy out the freedom we have in union with Messiah Jesus, for the purpose of enslaving us,+
5 to whom we did not yield or submit even for a moment,+ so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.
6 As for those leaders regarded as important (however they were regarded doesn’t mean a thing to me; it isn’t outward appearances on which God bases his judgment+)—to my message those leaders advised not even a single change.+
7 In fact, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of proclaiming+ the gospel to the Gentiles,+ just as Peter had been assigned to proclaim+ it to the Jews+
8 (the one who put his power to work through Peter as an apostle to the Jews,+ you see, put his power to work through me, too, as an apostle to the Gentiles+);
9 when James and Kefa and John, who were regarded as pillars, perceived the gift that had been entrusted to me,+ they gave me and Barnabas the very right hand of fellowship, acknowledging us as friends and partners and agreeing+ that we should work among the Gentiles, and they themselves among the circumcised.
10 All they asked+ was that for their poor we continue to show concern, which was the very thing I also was anxious to do.+
“I Confronted Him Right in Front of the Other Believers”
11 Now when Kefa came to Antioch, I confronted him right in front of the other believers,+ because he did something that was clearly in the wrong.+
12 Prior to the arrival of some men sent by James, you see, he had no qualms about eating with with the Gentile believers.+ When those men+ arrived, however, he became reluctant to do so and began to separate himself, fearing criticism from those who belong to the faction strict about Gentile circumcision,+
13 and the other Jewish believers followed his hypocritical example.+ As a result, even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 Well, when I observed this discrepency between their actions and the truth of the gospel, I said to Kefa in front of everyone: “Given the fact that ˢyou, even though you are a Jew, have until just recently been acting not according to Jewish custom, but according to Gentile custom,+ how in the world is it that the Gentiles you are now pressuring to follow Jewish customs?
15 As for us, we are Jews by birth and not sinners from among the Gentiles.+
16 Nevertheless, because we have come to realize+ that a person is held to be righteous not by deeds of Torah, but by the faith of Jesus the Messiah,+ even we ourselves have put our faith in Messiah Jesus, so that we may be held to be righteous by the faith of the Messiah+ and not by deeds of Torah. For by deeds of Torah no corrupt member of the human race+ ‘will be held to be righteous.’+”
“I Have Been Crucified with the Messiah”
17 Now if, while fervently desiring to be held to be righteous in union with the Messiah, we ourselves were also discovered to be sinners, does this mean that the Messiah encourages sin?+ Absolutely not!
18 If the things I tore down,+ you see, these I again begin building, I am proving myself to be one who disregards+ God’s instruction.
19 I, through Torah, died, you see, to Torah, so that I may live, now, in union with God himself.+
20 I have been crucified with the Messiah. It is no longer I myself who live, moreover, but the Messiah who is living in me.+ The life I am now living in this lowly mortal condition+ I am living by the faith of the Son of God,+ who showed his love for me and gave his life+ for me.
21 I refuse to turn my back on the gift of God! For if it is through Torah that righteousness comes, then the Messiah’s death was completely pointless!+