God Speaks
Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I 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. 3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
4 Even 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. 5 But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.
6 And 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.) 7 Instead, 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. 8 For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
9 In 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. 10 Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When 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. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When 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?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet 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.”
17 But 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! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For 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. 20 My 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. 21 I 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.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: After more than fourteen years of preaching the good news of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, Paul went to Jerusalem, taking Barnabas and Titus with him. There he met with the leaders who affirmed and encouraged him that he was correct in what he had been teaching. The question of circumcision came up only because some false teachers said that Gentile believers should be required to follow Jewish regulations. These leaders of the church in Jerusalem agreed that Paul would have responsibility to preach to the Gentiles, while Peter would be responsible to preach to the Jews. John, Peter, and Jesus’ brother James all agreed that Paul and his companions were truly fellow workers in spreading the gospel of Jesus. Later, Paul confronted Peter about his being swayed to behave differently whether among Gentiles or Jews. Paul asserted that, whether Jew or Gentile, everyone is made right with God because of their faith in Jesus Christ, not by keeping the Jewish laws. He summarized his point by saying that our old selves with their sin died with Jesus on the cross. When He rose from the dead, we rose again with Him. So, now we live each day in our earthly bodies by trusting in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. We are to receive and live out the grace of God.
Prayer: Dear Father God, thank You for instructing and guiding Your obedient children into the particular areas of influence in which You choose to use them. Although we need to consult those who have walked with You longer than we have, let us take our ultimate direction from You alone, Lord. Help us not to be hypocritical or deceptive in any way. Show us how to deal with those who disagree and/or persecute us in a firm, but loving manner, even those who are close to us and/or in positions of leadership. Thank You, Lord, that we are justified (declared righteous) by faith in Christ, not by works of the law (following all the rules and trying to be a “good” person). No mere human being can keep all of God’s laws perfectly. So, the only way we can be saved is receiving by faith all that Jesus did for us through His life, death, and resurrection. This applies to each of us personally, as we live it out each day. If a person could be saved any other way, then You, Jesus, suffered and died in vain. Thank You, Jesus. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will take time to listen to the instruction and guidance God has for me especially as I read and study the Bible.
- I will ask God to lead me to a wise mentor who can advise me in the ways of God.
- I will monitor my reactions to disagreement or persecution, asking myself, “How did Jesus react in similar circumstances?”
- I will quietly discuss with a friend or stranger how to be rescued from their sin so that they can spend eternity with God in Heaven.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.