Galatians:2

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* Fourteen years later I went to Jerusalem again . This time I went with Barnabas and I took Titus with me . * God showed me that I should go . And I told them about the good news which I tell to people who are not Jews . I told those who seemed to be church leaders when I was alone with them . I did not want my work to come to nothing-the work I had done or the work I was doing . * Titus was with me . He was not a Jew , but they did not force him to be circumcised &lt ;FI &gt ;have the mark of a Jew made on his body &lt ;Fi &gt ;. * But some men got in who were not true brothers . They came in secretly to spy on us to find out things about us . They did not want us to be free the way Christ Jesus has made us free . But they wanted to make us obey the old laws again &lt ;FI &gt ;which were given to Moses by God &lt ;Fi &gt ;. * But we did not let them tell us what to do , no , not even for one minute . In that way the real good news will be yours always . * Those men who seemed to be leaders did not teach me anything new . It does not matter to me who they were . God does not love some people more than others . * No , the leaders saw that God called me to take the good news to those who are not circumcised &lt ;FI &gt ;not Jews &lt ;Fi &gt ;, just as he called Peter to take the good news to those who are circumcised &lt ;FI &gt ;Jews &lt ;Fi &gt ;. * The same God who made Peter an apostle to the Jews made me an apostle to those who are not Jews . * The leaders saw that God had blessed me . James , Peter , and John seemed to be leaders in the church . They saw that God had blessed me . So they accepted Barnabas and me as fellow workers . They agreed that we should go to the people who were not Jews and they themselves would go to the Jews . * One thing they asked us to do was to help the poor Christians . I was very glad to do this . * One day Peter came to the city of Antioch . Then I had to tell him face to face that he had done wrong . He really was wrong ! * Here is what happened . Peter ate with those who were not Jews . Then some men came whom James had sent . When they came he stopped eating with those who were not Jews . He was afraid of what the Jews might think . * All the other Jewish Christians did the same as Peter did . They acted as if it was not right to eat with those who were not Jews . Even Barnabas did the same . * But I saw they were not doing right . They were not obeying the true teaching of the good news . So I said to Peter in front of them all , You are a Jew . But you live the way people do who are not Jews . How then can you force those who are not Jews to live the way the Jews do ? * We ourselves were born Jews . We are not of those who still follow wrong ways , those who are not Jews . * Yet we know that God does not call a man good because he tries to obey the law of the Jews . But we know that God puts a man right because he believes in Jesus Christ . So we also believed in Jesus Christ . And we are put right with God because we believe in Christ and not because we obey the law . No person will ever be called good by God just because he tries to obey the law of the Jews . * We came to Christ to be put right with God . That showed us how much we had been bad men . Was it Christ who made us bad men ? No , surely not ! * If I build up again what I once broke down , I do wrong . * Through the law I died . Now the law has no power over me so that I may live for God . * I died when Christ died on a cross . I do not live now , but Christ lives in me . Now while I still live in my body , I live by believing in the Son of God . He loved me and gave himself for me . * So I do not make the love of God useless . But if a person can be made good by the law , then Christ died for nothing .

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