Galatians 2
1 Then, fourteen years later, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too.
2 I went up because of a revelation and presented to them the gospel I proclaim among the Gentiles—especially to those held in high regard—so that I would not be running, or have run, in vain.
3 But even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was not forced to be circumcised.
4 This was because of the false brothers who had slipped in, the ones who came in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so they could enslave us.
5 We did not yield to them for even a moment in submission, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
6 As for those held in high regard—whatever they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me.
7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised.
8 For the one who worked through Peter for his apostleship to the circumcised also worked through me for the Gentiles.
9 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: we would go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
10 They asked only that we remember the poor, which I was eager to do.
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong.
12 Before some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
13 The other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was swept along by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, though a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
15 We are Jews by birth, not sinners from among the Gentiles.
16 Yet we know that a person is not declared righteous by works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be declared righteous through faith in Christ and not by works of the Law, because no one will be declared righteous by works of the Law.
17 But if, in seeking to be declared righteous in Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, does that make Christ a servant of sin? Absolutely not!
18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.
19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.
20 It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app