The chat will start when you send the first message.
1Then after fourteen winters had passed, I went once again to Village of Peace (Jerusalem) along with Son of Comfort (Barnabas) and Big Man (Titus) .
2It was the Great Spirit who revealed to me that I should go. I met in a private council with those who seemed to be the spiritual leaders and explained to them the manner in which I tell the good story to people from the Outside Nations. I wanted them to understand so that they would not try to undo all that I had done or wanted to do. I wanted to make sure I was not running a race I could not finish.
3The good news is that Big Man (Titus) , who was with me, was not required to participate in the cutting of the flesh ceremony, even though he was a Wisdom Seeker (Greek) , that is, from an Outside Nation .
4The ceremony was talked about because some who were not true sacred family members had been sneaked in. They crept in to spy on the freedom we have in Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One and to make us slaves to their understanding of our tribal law .
5But we stood firm and gave them no ground, even for a moment, so that the truth of Creator’s good story would be preserved for you.
6As for those leaders who are supposed to hold such a high reputation, their reputation means nothing to me, for the Great Spirit does not judge by outward appearance. Those leaders did not add one thing to the good story that I tell.
7Instead, it became clear to them that I had been given the sacred task of telling the good story to the Outside Nations, just as Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) was to our Tribal Members.[#2:7 Lit. uncircumcised , a way to speak of one who is a Gentile outsider; #2:7 Lit. circumcised , a way to speak of one who is Jewish]
8For the Great Spirit who gave Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) the calling and power to be a message bearer to our Tribal Members also gave me the calling and power to serve the Outside Nations.
9So when He Leads the Way (James) , Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) , and He Shows Goodwill (John) , who seemed to be the spiritual leaders, came to understand that I had been given this sacred task, they joined hands in agreement with me and Son of Comfort (Barnabas) . They agreed that we would go to the Outside Nations and they to our tribal nation.[#2:9 Lit. pillars]
10They asked only that we would not forget to help the poor, a desire that was already burning in my heart.
11After that, something else happened that I need to make clear : when Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) came to stay for a time at the village of Stands Against (Antioch) , I had to take a stand against him face-to-face, to clearly show that what he was doing was wrong.
12From Village of Peace (Jerusalem) He Leads the Way (James) sent some men to Stands Against (Antioch) . Before they came, Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) would sit and eat withthe sacred family members from the Outside Nations. But after those men came, he separated himself from the sacred family members from the Outside Nations, for he was afraid of what these Tribal Members might think of him.
13Then all the other Tribal Members joined with him in his cowardly ways, so that even Son of Comfort (Barnabas) was drawn into their false-faced ways.
14When I saw that they were not walking true to the meaning of the good story, I said to Stands on the Rock (Cephas-Peter) in front of everyone there, “You, who are a Tribal Member, have been living in the same manner as the people from the Outside Nations. So how is it that you would force them to follow the traditions of our Tribal Members?
15“We who are Tribal Members by birth are not like those ‘outcasts’ from the Outside Nations who do not keep our law .
16But we who follow the Chosen One know that working hard to keep our tribal law does not put us in good standing with Creator. For good standing comes through trusting in what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One has done. As Tribal Members we have put our trust in him, so that our good standing comes from trusting in the Chosen One and not by working hard to keep our tribal law. For no human being will be put in good standing with Creator by working hard to keep the law.
17“If we Tribal Members, while seeking to be in good standing by trusting in the Chosen One, are also found to be outcasts and guilty of wrongdoing, can it be said that the Chosen One is leading us into broken ways? May it never be!
18For if I were to rebuild the things I have torn down, that would prove that I was wrong from the first and make me a lawbreaker.
19It was through our tribal law that I died to our tribal law, so that I could be set free to live for the Great Spirit. When the Chosen One died on the cross, I died with him.
20“My life is no longer my own, for my life belongs to the Chosen One, who lives in me. The life I now live in my weak human body, I live by trusting in the faithfulness of the Son of the Great Spirit, who loved me and gave up his life for me.
21I cannot do away with the gift of Creator’s great kindness, for if good standing with Creator could be gained through the law, that would mean the Chosen One died for nothing.”