After a long debate Peter stood up and said, "My friends, you know that a long time ago God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the Gentiles, so that they could hear and believe.

I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are accepting another gospel.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell!

Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.

but in order to keep the truth of the gospel safe for you, we did not give in to them for a minute.

My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people.

And so we have met together and have all agreed to choose some messengers and send them to you. They will go with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

If you do this, as God commands, you will not wear yourself out, and all these people can go home with their disputes settled."

Fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

I went because God revealed to me that I should go. In a private meeting with the leaders I explained the gospel message that I preach to the Gentiles. I did not want my work in the past or in the present to be a failure.

Then the apostles and the elders, together with the whole church, decided to choose some men from the group and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose two men who were highly respected by the believers, Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas,

We send you, then, Judas and Silas, who will tell you in person the same things we are writing.

Peter invited the men in and had them spend the night there. The next day he got ready and went with them; and some of the believers from Joppa went along with him.

The Spirit told me to go with them without hesitation. These six fellow believers from Joppa accompanied me to Caesarea, and we all went into the house of Cornelius.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them.

Then the apostles and the elders, together with the whole church, decided to choose some men from the group and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose two men who were highly respected by the believers, Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas,

and they sent the following letter by them:

and the LORD said, "Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king.

I am a free man, nobody's slave; but I make myself everybody's slave in order to win as many people as possible.

In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don't obey God's law; I am really under Christ's law.

All this I do for the gospel's sake, in order to share in its blessings.

I went because God revealed to me that I should go. In a private meeting with the leaders I explained the gospel message that I preach to the Gentiles. I did not want my work in the past or in the present to be a failure.

For this reason I could be bold enough, as your brother in Christ, to order you to do what should be done.

But because I love you, I make a request instead. I do this even though I am Paul, the ambassador of Christ Jesus, and at present also a prisoner for his sake.

The apostles and the elders met together to consider this question.

and they sent the following letter by them:

The next day Paul went with us to see James; and all the church elders were present.

From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes---

I do not think that I am the least bit inferior to those very special so-called "apostles" of yours!