Book of Common Prayer

15 Some men came from Judea and taught the Christian brothers. They said, `You must be circumcised with the mark made on your body in the way Moses taught us. If you are not circumcised you cannot be saved.'

² Paul and Barnabas did not agree with them. There was much talking about it. Then they decided that Paul and Barnabas and some of the other men should go to Jerusalem. They would ask the apostles and church leaders there about it.

³ So the church people sent them on their way. They passed through the districts of Phoenicia and Samaria. They told them that some who were not Jews were believing in God. This news made all the Christian brothers very happy.

⁴ When they reached Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church people, the apostles, and the church leaders. They told all that God had done as he worked with them.

⁵ But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisee group stood up and said, `They must be circumcised [like the Jews]. We must tell them to keep all the laws of Moses.'

⁶ The apostles and the church leaders met together to talk the matter over.

⁷ After much talking about it, Peter stood up. He said, `Men and brothers, you know what happened in the first days. God chose me to tell the good news to those who are not Jews. They believed.

⁸ God knows what is in a person's heart. He proved that they believed. He gave them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.

⁹ God made no difference between them and us. He made their hearts clean when they believed.

¹⁰ So now why are you doing what God did not do? You give the disciples a hard thing to do. Our fathers could not do it. And we cannot do it.

¹¹ We believe that the Lord Jesus saves us because he is kind. And that is why he saves them.'

¹² Then all the people stopped talking. They listened to what Paul and Barnabas had to say. They told them about all the signs and wonderful things that God had helped them to do among the people who were not Jews.

⁴⁹ `I came to start a fire on the earth. I wish the fire were already burning!

⁵⁰ I will be going through a big trouble, and I feel like a prisoner until it is all over.

⁵¹ Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? I tell you, "No". I came to take away peace.

⁵² From now, if there are five in a family, they will be against each other. Three of them will be against the other two. And two of them will be against the other three.

⁵³ A father will be against his son, and the son will be against his father. The mother will be against her daughter, and the daughter will be against her mother. A man's mother will be against his wife, and his wife will be against his mother.'

⁵⁴ Jesus also said to the people, `When you see a cloud coming up in the west, you say right away, "Rain is coming." And it comes.

⁵⁵ When the wind is blowing from the south, you say, "It will be very hot." And it is.

⁵⁶ You are not true to yourselves! You know the meaning of these signs in the earth and sky. But you do not know the meaning of the signs about the time in which we are living.'