The Council at Jerusalem

15 Certain people^(A) came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers:^(B) “Unless you are circumcised,^(C) according to the custom taught by Moses,^(D) you cannot be saved.”

⁶ For in Christ Jesus^(A) neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.^(B) The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.^(C)

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party^(A) of the Pharisees^(B) stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”^(C)

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,^(A) which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world^(B) rather than on Christ.

³ On the eighth day^(A) the boy is to be circumcised.^(B)

Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.^(A) Stand firm,^(B) then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.^(C)

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised,^(D) Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.^{(E) 4} You who are trying to be justified by the law^(F) have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.^(G)

Paul Opposes Cephas

¹¹ When Cephas^(A) came to Antioch,^(B) I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James,^(C) he used to eat with the Gentiles.^(D) But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.^{(E) 13} The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas^(F) was led astray.

¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,^(G) I said to Cephas^(H) in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.^(I) How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?^(J)

¹⁸ Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.^{(A) 19} Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing.^(B) Keeping God’s commands is what counts.

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?^(B) We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.^{(C) 10} Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.^(D) So then, he is the father^(E) of all who believe^(F) but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.