Chapter 2

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking also Titus along with me.

And I went up in consequence of a revelation, and I conferred with them on the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but separately with the men of authority; lest perhaps I should be running, or had run in vain.

But not even Titus, who was with me, Gentile though he was, was compelled to be circumcised,

although it was urged on account of false brethren who were brought in secretly, who slipped in to spy upon our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into slavery.

Now to these we did not yield in submission, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

But from the men of authority (what they once were matters not to me; God accepts not the person of man)---the men of authority laid no further burden on me.

On the contrary, when they saw that to me was committed the gospel for the uncircumcised, as to Peter that for the circumcised

(for he who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcised worked also in me among the Gentiles)---

and when they recognized the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were considered the pillars, gave to me and to Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised;

provided only that we should be mindful of the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Paul Reproves Peter

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was deserving of blame.

For before certain persons came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and to separate himself, fearing the circumcised.

And the rest of the Jews dissembled along with him, so that Barnabas also was led away by them into that dissimulation.

But when I saw that they were not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: If thou, though a Jew, livest like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how is it that thou dost compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?

We are Jews by birth, and not sinners from among the Gentiles.

But we know that man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Hence we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; because by the works of the Law no man will be justified.

But if, while we are seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? By no means.

For if I reconstruct the things that I destroyed, I make myself a sinner.

For I through the Law have died to the Law that I may live to God. With Christ I am nailed to the cross.

It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I do not cast away the grace of God. For if justice is by the Law, then Christ died in vain.