4. We went there because of those who pretended to be followers and had sneaked in among us as spies. They had come to take away the freedom that Christ Jesus had given us, and they were trying to make us their slaves.
5. But we wanted you to have the true message. That's why we didn't give in to them, not even for a second.
6. Some of them were supposed to be important leaders, but I didn't care who they were. God doesn't have any favourites! None of these so called special leaders added anything to my message.
7. They realized that God had sent me with the good news for Gentiles, and that he had sent Peter with the same message for Jews.
8. God, who had sent Peter on a mission to the Jews, was now using me to preach to the Gentiles.
9. James, Peter, and John realized that God had given me the message about his undeserved kindness. And these men are supposed to be the backbone of the church. They even gave Barnabas and me a friendly handshake. This was to show that we would work with Gentiles and that they would work with Jews.
10. They only asked us to remember the poor, and that was something I had always been eager to do.
11. When Peter came to Antioch, I told him face to face that he was wrong.
12. He used to eat with Gentile followers of the Lord, until James sent some Jewish followers. Peter was afraid of the Jews and soon stopped eating with Gentiles.
13. He and the other Jews hid their true feelings so well that even Barnabas was fooled.
14. But when I saw that they were not really obeying the truth that is in the good news, I corrected Peter in front of everyone and said:Peter, you are a Jew, but you live like a Gentile. So how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?
15. We are Jews by birth and are not sinners like Gentiles.
16. But we know that God accepts only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. No one can please God by simply obeying the Law. So we put our faith in Christ Jesus, and God accepted us because of our faith.
17. When we Jews started looking for a way to please God, we discovered that we are sinners too. Does this mean that Christ is the one who makes us sinners? No, it doesn't!
18. But if I tear down something and then build it again, I prove that I was wrong at first.