Acts 15:2-13

²Paul and Barnabas strongly disagreed with those Jews and started arguing with them. So the believers at Antioch appointed Paul and Barnabas and some of the other believers to go to Jerusalem, in order that they would/could discuss this matter with the apostles and other spiritual leaders.

³After Paul, Barnabas, and the others were given things for their trip by the congregation at Antioch {After the congregation at Antioch gave Paul, Barnabas, and the others things for their trip}, they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria provinces. When they stopped at different places in those provinces, they reported to the believers that many non-Jews in Antioch had become believers. As a result, all the believers in those places rejoiced greatly.

⁴And when Paul, Barnabas, and the others arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the apostles, the other elders, and the other members of the congregation there {the apostles, the other elders, and the other members of the congregation there welcomed them}. Then Paul and Barnabas reported the things that God had enabled them to do among non-Jewish people.

⁵But some of the Jewish believers who belonged to the Pharisee sect stood up among the other believers and said to them, “The non-Jews who have believed in Jesus must be circumcised, and they must be told to obey the laws that God gave to Moses.”

⁶Then the apostles and the other elders met together in order to talk about this matter.

⁷After they had discussed it for a long time, Peter stood up and spoke to them. He said, “Fellow believers, you all know that a long time ago God chose me from among you other apostles, in order that the non-Jewish people might also hear me SYN tell them the good message about the Lord Jesus, so that they could hear it and believe in him. So Paul and Barnabas are not the first ones to tell non-Jews about Jesus.

⁸God knows and judges people according to what they think, not according to who their ancestors were. By sending the Holy Spirit to the non-Jews, just like he had also done for us (inc) Jews, he showed me and others that he had accepted them also to be his people.

⁹God saved us Jews and those non-Jews similarly, making them clean spiritually simply as a result of their believing in the Lord Jesus. That was exactly how he has forgiven us.

¹⁰You are wanting to force the non-Jewish believers to obey our Jewish rituals and laws —laws that God has shown that he does not require them to obey MET. Your doing that is like putting a heavy burden on them! So then, ◄stop making God angry by doing that!/why are you making God angry by doing that?► RHQ Our ancestors and we (inc) Jews have never been able to bear the burden of obeying those laws!

¹¹But we (inc) know that it is not because we (inc) try to obey those laws that God saves us(inc) Jews. On the contrary, we (inc) know that it is because of what the Lord Jesus did for us (inc) that we did not deserve that we (inc) are saved {that God saves us} from the guilt of our sins. God saves non-Jews who believe in the Lord Jesus exactly like he saves us Jews.”

¹²All the people there became silent after Peter had spoken. Then they all listened to Barnabas and Paul, as the two of them told about the many great miracles that God had enabled them to do among the non-Jewish people, miracles that showed that God had accepted the non-Jews.

¹³When Barnabas and Paul had finished speaking, James, the leader of the group of believers there in Jerusalem, spoke to all of them. He said, “Fellow believers, listen to me.