Galatians 2:1-10

Fourteen years later, I returned to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas and Titus, my coworkers. God gave me a clear revelation to go and confer with the other apostles concerning the message of grace I was preaching to the gentiles. I spoke privately with those who were viewed as senior leaders of the church, wanting to make certain that my labor and ministry for the Messiah had not been based on a false understanding of the gospel. Even though Titus was a Syrian, they accepted him as a brother without demanding that he first be circumcised. I met with them privately because false “brothers” had been secretly smuggled into church meetings. They were sent to spy on the wonderful freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. Their agenda was to bring us back into the bondage of religion. But you must know that we did not submit to their religious shackles, not even for a moment, so that we might keep the truth of the gospel of grace unadulterated for you. Even those most influential among the brothers were not able to add anything to my message. Who they are before men makes no difference to me, for God is not impressed by their reputations. So they recognized that I was entrusted with taking the gospel to the gentiles just as Peter was entrusted with taking it to the Jews. For the same God who empowered Peter’s apostolic ministry to the Jews also flowed through me as an apostle to those who are gentiles. When they all recognized this grace operating in my ministry, those who were recognized as influential pillars in the church—Jacob, Peter, and John—extended to Barnabas and me the warmth of Christian fellowship and honored my calling to minister to the gentiles, even as they were to go to the Jews. They simply requested one thing of me: that I would remember the poor and needy, which was the burden I was already carrying in my heart.