Galatians
Chapter 2
Overview
Paul recounts two tense moments in his work among followers of Jesus. At issue is whether non-Jews must adopt Jewish law and circumcision to belong fully among them. First, Paul visits Jerusalem, where recognized leaders accept his mission to non-Jews. Then, in Antioch, a shared meal becomes a public conflict when Peter withdraws from non-Jewish believers. The chapter moves from partnership to confrontation and finally to Paul’s central claim: people are made right with God through trust in Jesus, not by keeping the law. Sometimes unity is tested by something as ordinary as choosing where to sit at dinner.
1Then, after fourteen years, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too.
2I went because of a revelation. I explained to the believers there the good news I proclaim among non-Jews. I also met privately with those recognized as leaders, to make sure that I was not running—or had not run—for nothing.
3Yet even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to undergo the Jewish rite of circumcision, though he was Greek and not Jewish.
4The pressure came from people falsely posing as fellow believers. They had slipped in to spy on the freedom we have through Jesus the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, intending to enslave us.
5We did not submit to them for even a moment, so that the truth of the good news would remain with you.
6As for those regarded as important leaders—whatever they once were makes no difference to me, because God shows no favoritism—they added no new requirement to my message.
7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with taking the good news to non-Jews, just as Peter had been entrusted with taking it to Jews.
8The same God who worked through Peter in his mission to the Jews also worked through me in my mission to the non-Jews.
9James, Cephas—also called Peter—and John were considered pillars, or key leaders. When they recognized the favor God had given me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of partnership. We agreed that Barnabas and I would go to the non-Jews, while they would go to the Jews.
10They asked only that we remember the poor, which was the very thing I was eager to do.
11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him face-to-face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
12Before some people from James arrived, Cephas regularly ate with non-Jews. But when they arrived, he drew back and separated himself because he was afraid of the group that insisted on circumcision.
13The other Jewish believers joined him in this hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was swept along by their pretense.
14When I saw that they were not following a straight path in line with the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “You are Jewish, yet you live like a non-Jew and not according to Jewish customs. So how can you pressure non-Jews to adopt Jewish ways?”
15We are Jews by birth, not non-Jewish “sinners.”
16Yet we know that a person is not declared right with God by doing what Moses’ law requires, but through trust in Jesus the Messiah. So we too put our trust in Jesus the Messiah, so that we could be declared right with God through trust in the Messiah and not by doing what the law requires. No human being will be declared right with God by doing what the law requires.
17But if, while seeking to be declared right with God through the Messiah, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that mean the Messiah promotes sin? Absolutely not!
18If I rebuild what I tore down, I prove that I am the one breaking the law.
19Through the law, I died to the law—its rule over me ended—so that I could live for God. I have been crucified with the Messiah.
20I am no longer the one living; the Messiah lives in me. The life I now live in this body, I live by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
21I do not reject God’s generous favor. If people can be made right with God through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing.