Chapter 2
1 Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me .
2 I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles , but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running , or had run , in vain .
3 But not even Titus , who was with me , being a Greek , was compelled to be circumcised .
4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in , who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus , that they might bring us into bondage ,
5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection , not for an hour , that the truth of the Good News might continue with you .
6 But from those who were reputed to be important— whatever they were , it makes no difference to me ; God doesn’ t show partiality to man — they , I say , who were respected imparted nothing to me ,
7 but to the contrary , when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised —
8 for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles —
9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me , James and Cephas and John , those who were reputed to be pillars , gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship , that we should go to the Gentiles , and they to the circumcision .
10 They only asked us to remember the poor — which very thing I was also zealous to do .
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face , because he stood condemned .
12 For before some people came from James , he ate with the Gentiles . But when they came , he drew back and separated himself , fearing those who were of the circumcision .
13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy , so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy .
14 But when I saw that they didn’ t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News , I said to Peter before them all , " If you , being a Jew , live as the Gentiles do , and not as the Jews do , why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do ?
15 " We , being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners,
16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ , even we believed in Christ Jesus , that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law , because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law .
17 But if while we sought to be justified in Christ , we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not !
18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed , I prove myself a law-breaker.
19 For I through the law died to the law , that I might live to God .
20 I have been crucified with Christ , and it is no longer I who live , but Christ lives in me . That life which I now live in the flesh , I live by faith in the Son of God , who loved me and gave himself up for me .
21 I don’ t reject the grace of God . For if righteousness is through the law , then Christ died for nothing !"