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.
14Simon Peter has told you how God previously blessed the non-Jews. God did that by choosing from among them a people who would belong to him MTY.
15These words that God spoke, words that were written by one of the prophets {that one of the prophets wrote} long ago, agree with that:
16Later on I will return and I will re-establish the kingdom MET that David ruled and that has been {that people have} destroyed. My doing that will be like rebuilding a house that has been {that people have} torn down.
17I will do that in order that all other people might seek me, the Lord God. I will do that in order that all the non-Jews whom I have called to belong to me MTY might seek me. You can be certain that this will happen because I the Lord God, who will do those things, have spoken these words.
18I caused my people to know about them long ago.”
19James continued by saying, “Therefore I have decided that we(inc) should stop bothering the non-Jewish people who are turning away from their sins and turning to God. That is, we should stop demanding that they obey all our laws and rituals.
20Instead, we should write a letter to them requiring only four things: They should not eat meat/food that people have offered to idols, they should not have sex with someone to whom they are not married, they should not eat meat from animals that have been killed by being strangled { people have strangled}, and they should not eat the blood of animals.
21In many cities, for a very long time people have been proclaiming the laws that Moses wrote MTY, laws prohibiting those things. And every ◄Sabbath/Jewish day of rest► those laws are read {someone reads those laws} in the Jewish meeting places. So if the non-Jews want to know more about those laws, they can find out in our meeting houses.”
22The apostles and the other elders, along with all the other members of the congregation, accepted what James had said. Then they decided that they should choose men from among themselves and that they should send them, along with Paul and Barnabas, to Antioch, to let the believers there know what the leaders at Jerusalem had decided. So they chose Judas, who was also called Barsabbas, and Silas, who were leaders among the believers at Jerusalem.
23Then they wrote the following letter that they asked Judas and Silas to take to the believers at Antioch: “ We(exc) apostles and other leaders who are your fellow believers send our greetings to you as we write this to you non-Jewish believers who live in Antioch and other places in Syria and Cilicia provinces.
24People have told us that some men from among us went to you, although we had not told them to do that. They troubled/distressed you SYN by telling you things that confused your thinking.
25So while we(exc) met together here, we decided to choose some men and ask them to go to you, along with Barnabas and Paul, whom we (exc) love very much.
26Those two have put their lives in danger because of their serving our Lord MTY Jesus Christ.
27We (exc) have also chosen Judas and Silas to go to you. They will tell you the same things that we are writing.
28The Holy Spirit and also we decided that you should not be required {that we should not require you} to obey a lot of burdensome Jewish laws. Instead, we only require you to obey the following instructions,
29You should not eat food that people have sacrificed to idols. You should not eat blood from animals, and you should not eat meat from animals that people have killed by strangling them. Also, you should not have sex with someone to whom you are not married. Those things especially offend Jewish believers. So if you avoid doing them, you will be doing what is right. That is all.”
30The four men whom they had chosen went from Jerusalem to Antioch city. When all the believers there had assembled together, Judas and Silas gave the letter to them.
Acts 15
Acts 15:8-30