1. Invitation
Take a pause and several slow, deep breaths. Acknowledge and become aware that you are in the presence of your Holy God.
2. Examen
Which friendships and relationships encourage and grow me in the work to which God has called me?
How can I cultivate and grow those friendships?
Which friendships and relationships hinder or discourage me and might be worth distancing myself from?
Give thanks to God for the encouraging friendships and for the insight about the friendships that do not build you up.
3. The Word
Pray for God’s Spirit to move as you study His Word.
Read through the passage once at a normal speed, then a second time more slowly.
What can you learn about the reason for writing the letter from reading this passage?
Take a moment—close your eyes to imagine if needed—and imagine yourself in the context of the passage. Sit with the story and imagine yourself in it. Which character do you most identify with, or do you see yourself a bystander?
What elements of what was going on in his audience are relevant to the environment you live in today?
Speak to the Lord about how you feel about the text.
Take a quiet moment of pause to hear what God might be saying to you.
4. Time With Jesus
Now that you’ve read and reflected, sit with Jesus and consider:
What do you want from Jesus?
5. Linger
Thank God for the insight you’ve gained.
Pray for strength to live today in his presence and power.
Paul Accepted by the Apostles
1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,[ ] just as Peter had been to the circumcised.[ ] 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas[ ] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Paul Opposes Cephas
11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. 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. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[ ] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
2:7 That is, Gentiles
2:7 That is, Jews; also in verses 8 and 9
2:9 That is, Peter; also in verses 11 and 14
2:16 Or but through the faithfulness of … justified on the basis of the faithfulness of
تبغى تتواصل مع مسيحي؟ تواصل معنا بكل امان الحين.
