The Meeting at Jerusalem

¹Some men came from Judea to Antioch and started teaching the believers, “You cannot be saved unless you are circumcised as the Law of Moses requires.”

²Paul and Barnabas got into a fierce argument with them about this, so it was decided that Paul and Barnabas and some of the others in Antioch should go to Jerusalem and see the apostles and elders about this matter.

³They were sent on their way by the church; and as they went through Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported how the Gentiles had turned to God; this news brought great joy to all the believers.

⁴When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them.

⁵But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders met together to consider this question.

⁷After a long debate Peter stood up and said, “My friends, you know that a long time ago God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the Gentiles, so that they could hear and believe.

⁸And God, who knows the thoughts of everyone, showed his approval of the Gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he had to us.

⁹He made no difference between us and them; he forgave their sins because they believed.

¹⁰So then, why do you now want to put God to the test by laying a load on the backs of the believers which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry?

¹¹No! We believe and are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”

¹²The whole group was silent as they heard Barnabas and Paul report all the miracles and wonders that God had performed through them among the Gentiles.

¹³When they had finished speaking, James spoke up: “Listen to me, my friends!

¹⁴Simon has just explained how God first showed his care for the Gentiles by taking from among them a people to belong to him.

¹⁵The words of the prophets agree completely with this. As the scripture says,

¹⁶‘After this I will return, says the Lord, and restore the kingdom of David. I will rebuild its ruins and make it strong again.

¹⁷And so all the rest of the human race will come to me, all the Gentiles whom I have called to be my own.

¹⁸So says the Lord, who made this known long ago.’

¹⁹“It is my opinion,” James went on, “that we should not trouble the Gentiles who are turning to God.

²⁰Instead, we should write a letter telling them not to eat any food that is ritually unclean because it has been offered to idols; to keep themselves from sexual immorality; and not to eat any animal that has been strangled, or any blood.

²¹For the Law of Moses has been read for a very long time in the synagogues every Sabbath, and his words are preached in every town.”

The Letter to the Gentile Believers

²²Then the apostles and the elders, together with the whole church, decided to choose some men from the group and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose two men who were highly respected by the believers, Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas,

²³and they sent the following letter by them: “We, the apostles and the elders, your brothers, send greetings to all our brothers of Gentile birth who live in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.

²⁴We have heard that some who went from our group have troubled and upset you by what they said; they had not, however, received any instruction from us.

²⁵And so we have met together and have all agreed to choose some messengers and send them to you. They will go with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶who have risked their lives in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷We send you, then, Judas and Silas, who will tell you in person the same things we are writing.

²⁸The Holy Spirit and we have agreed not to put any other burden on you besides these necessary rules:

²⁹eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood; eat no animal that has been strangled; and keep yourselves from sexual immorality. You will do well if you take care not to do these things. With our best wishes.”

³⁰The messengers were sent off and went to Antioch, where they gathered the whole group of believers and gave them the letter.

³¹When the people read it, they were filled with joy by the message of encouragement.

³²Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, spoke a long time with them, giving them courage and strength.

³³After spending some time there, they were sent off in peace by the believers and went back to those who had sent them.

³⁴[But it seemed good to Silas to remain there; and Judas alone departed to Jerusalem.] (Vulgate/DR Patch)

³⁵Paul and Barnabas spent some time in Antioch, and together with many others they taught and preached the word of the Lord.

Paul and Barnabas Separate

³⁶Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in every town where we preached the word of the Lord, and let us find out how they are getting along.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them,

³⁸but Paul did not think it was right to take him, because he had not stayed with them to the end of their mission, but had turned back and left them in Pamphylia.

³⁹There was a sharp argument, and they separated: Barnabas took Mark and sailed off for Cyprus,

⁴⁰while Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the care of the Lord's grace.

⁴¹He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

¹Imitate me, then, just as I imitate Christ.

Covering the Head in Worship

²I praise you because you always remember me and follow the teachings that I have handed on to you.

³But I want you to understand that Christ is supreme over every man, the husband is supreme over his wife, and God is supreme over Christ.

⁴So a man who prays or proclaims God's message in public worship with his head covered disgraces Christ.

⁵And any woman who prays or proclaims God's message in public worship with nothing on her head disgraces her husband; there is no difference between her and a woman whose head has been shaved.

⁶If the woman does not cover her head, she might as well cut her hair. And since it is a shameful thing for a woman to shave her head or cut her hair, she should cover her head.

⁷A man has no need to cover his head, because he reflects the image and glory of God. But woman reflects the glory of man;

⁸for man was not created from woman, but woman from man.

⁹Nor was man created for woman's sake, but woman was created for man's sake.

¹⁰On account of the angels, then, a woman should have a covering over her head to show that she is under her husband's authority.

¹¹In our life in the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

¹²For as woman was made from man, in the same way man is born of woman; and it is God who brings everything into existence.

¹³Judge for yourselves whether it is proper for a woman to pray to God in public worship with nothing on her head.

¹⁴Why, nature itself teaches you that long hair on a man is a disgrace,

¹⁵but on a woman it is a thing of beauty. Her long hair has been given her to serve as a covering.

¹⁶But if anyone wants to argue about it, all I have to say is that neither we nor the churches of God have any other custom in worship.

The Lord's Supper

¹⁷In the following instructions, however, I do not praise you, because your meetings for worship actually do more harm than good.

¹⁸In the first place, I have been told that there are opposing groups in your meetings; and this I believe is partly true.

¹⁹(No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.)

²⁰When you meet together as a group, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat.

²¹For as you eat, you each go ahead with your own meal, so that some are hungry while others get drunk.

²²Don't you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or would you rather despise the church of God and put to shame the people who are in need? What do you expect me to say to you about this? Shall I praise you? Of course I don't!

²³For I received from the Lord the teaching that I passed on to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took a piece of bread,

²⁴gave thanks to God, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.”

²⁵In the same way, after the supper he took the cup and said, “This cup is God's new covenant, sealed with my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.”

²⁶This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

²⁷It follows that if one of you eats the Lord's bread or drinks from his cup in a way that dishonors him, you are guilty of sin against the Lord's body and blood.

²⁸So then, you should each examine yourself first, and then eat the bread and drink from the cup.

²⁹For if you do not recognize the meaning of the Lord's body when you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you bring judgment on yourself as you eat and drink.

³⁰That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died.

³¹If we would examine ourselves first, we would not come under God's judgment.

³²But we are judged and punished by the Lord, so that we shall not be condemned together with the world.

³³So then, my friends, when you gather together to eat the Lord's Supper, wait for one another.

³⁴And if any of you are hungry, you should eat at home, so that you will not come under God's judgment as you meet together. As for the other matters, I will settle them when I come.

Gifts from the Holy Spirit

¹Now, concerning what you wrote about the gifts from the Holy Spirit. I want you to know the truth about them, my friends.

²You know that while you were still heathen, you were led astray in many ways to the worship of lifeless idols.

³I want you to know that no one who is led by God's Spirit can say “A curse on Jesus!” and no one can confess “Jesus is Lord,” without being guided by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them.

⁵There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served.

⁶There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service.

⁷The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.

⁸The Spirit gives one person a message full of wisdom, while to another person the same Spirit gives a message full of knowledge.

⁹One and the same Spirit gives faith to one person, while to another person he gives the power to heal.

¹⁰The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God's message; and to yet another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person he gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another he gives the ability to explain what is said.

¹¹But it is one and the same Spirit who does all this; as he wishes, he gives a different gift to each person.

One Body with Many Parts

¹²Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts.

¹³In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit, and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts.

¹⁵If the foot were to say, “Because I am not a hand, I don't belong to the body,” that would not keep it from being a part of the body.

¹⁶And if the ear were to say, “Because I am not an eye, I don't belong to the body,” that would not keep it from being a part of the body.

¹⁷If the whole body were just an eye, how could it hear? And if it were only an ear, how could it smell?

¹⁸As it is, however, God put every different part in the body just as he wanted it to be.

¹⁹There would not be a body if it were all only one part!

²⁰As it is, there are many parts but one body.

²¹So then, the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don't need you!” Nor can the head say to the feet, “Well, I don't need you!”

²²On the contrary, we cannot do without the parts of the body that seem to be weaker;

²³and those parts that we think aren't worth very much are the ones which we treat with greater care; while the parts of the body which don't look very nice are treated with special modesty,

²⁴which the more beautiful parts do not need. God himself has put the body together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that need it.

²⁵And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another.

²⁶If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.

²⁷All of you are Christ's body, and each one is a part of it.

²⁸In the church God has put all in place: in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, and in the third place teachers; then those who perform miracles, followed by those who are given the power to heal or to help others or to direct them or to speak in strange tongues.

²⁹They are not all apostles or prophets or teachers. Not everyone has the power to work miracles

³⁰or to heal diseases or to speak in strange tongues or to explain what is said.

³¹Set your hearts, then, on the more important gifts. Best of all, however, is the following way.

¹⁰If you trick an honest person into doing evil, you will fall into your own trap. The innocent will be well rewarded.

¹¹Rich people always think they are wise, but a poor person who has insight into character knows better.

¹²When good people come to power, everybody celebrates, but when bad people rule, people stay in hiding.