Book of Common Prayer

2 Fourteen years later I went to Jerusalem again. This time I went with Barnabas and I took Titus with me.

² God showed me that I should go. And I told them about the good news which I tell to people who are not Jews. I told those who seemed to be church leaders when I was alone with them. I did not want my work to come to nothing - the work I had done or the work I was doing.

³ Titus was with me. He was not a Jew, but they did not force him to be circumcised [have the mark of a Jew made on his body].

⁴ But some men got in who were not true brothers. They came in secretly to spy on us to find out things about us. They did not want us to be free the way Christ Jesus has made us free. But they wanted to make us obey the old laws again [which were given to Moses by God].

⁵ But we did not let them tell us what to do, no, not even for one minute. In that way the real good news will be yours always.

⁶ Those men who seemed to be leaders did not teach me anything new. It does not matter to me who they were. God does not love some people more than others.

⁷ No, the leaders saw that God called me to take the good news to those who are not circumcised [not Jews], just as he called Peter to take the good news to those who are circumcised [Jews].

⁸ The same God who made Peter an apostle to the Jews made me an apostle to those who are not Jews.

⁹ The leaders saw that God had blessed me. James, Peter, and John seemed to be leaders in the church. They saw that God had blessed me. So they accepted Barnabas and me as fellow workers. They agreed that we should go to the people who were not Jews and they themselves would go to the Jews.

¹⁰ One thing they asked us to do was to help the poor Christians. I was very glad to do this.

³¹ The people brought a man to Jesus who could not hear and could not talk well. They begged Jesus to put his hand on him.

³² So Jesus took him away alone. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue.

³³ He looked up to heaven and sighed. He said, `Ephphatha!' That means, `Be opened!'

³⁴ Right away the man's ears were opened and his tongue was made free. He could talk well.

³⁵ Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone.' But the more he told them not to tell, the more they told it everywhere.

³⁶ The people were very much surprised. They said, `He has done everything well. The people who could not hear can hear. The people who could not talk can talk.'