Acts 15:9Plain English VersionHe did the same thing for them that he did for us. They believed in him, and he made them clean from the wrong things they did. See the chapter |
The same thing happened in the town called Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish meeting house, and they talked strongly about Jesus to the people there. They told them that God is very good to people. And a big mob of people believed in Jesus. Some of them were Jews, and some of them were not Jews. But there were other Jewish people that didn’t believe in Jesus, and they talked to the other people that were not Jews, and they got them to hate the Christians. So the people of Iconium split up into 2 mobs. One mob reckoned that Paul and Barnabas were right, but the other mob reckoned those Jewish people were right. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Iconium a long time, and they kept on telling people about Jesus, and they were not frightened of anyone. And God helped Paul and Barnabas do powerful things, to show that they were telling the true story about Jesus.
It’s like this. Some of you were born Jews, so your Jewish family did a young man operation on you. After that, God picked you to be in his family. All right, don’t try to get another operation to change it back again. And some of you are not born Jews, but God has picked you to be in his family. All right, don’t try to be Jewish now. Don’t get a young man operation.
You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all joined to each other. You are not different from each other any more. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter if somebody keeps you like a prisoner, or if you are free. None of that matters. You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all the same as each other.
And this is what God planned. He will be good to everyone that believes the good news about Jesus. It doesn’t matter if they are Jews, or not Jews. If they believe in Jesus, God will save them. Both will get what God promised. They both belong to the same mob now. They both belong to God, just like arms and legs belong to the same body.
You are a new person now. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or not, or if they did a young man operation on you or not. It doesn’t matter if you are from another country, or even if you are from a wild tribe. It doesn’t matter if you are a prisoner, or a free person. This is what matters, Jesus Christ lives inside all of his people. He is really great.