Galatians 2:12

Plain English Version

You see, it was like this. Peter is a Jewish man, and at first he was friends with the Christians at Antioch that were not Jews. He even broke the Jewish rules and ate food with them. But then James sent some other Jewish men to Antioch, and after they got there, Peter changed. Those new men reckoned that every Christian has to become a Jew, and Peter was frightened of them. He went back to following the Jewish rules and stopped eating food with those people that were not Jews. All the other Jewish Christians at Antioch were frightened too, and they did the same as Peter, even though they knew it was wrong. And Barnabas did that too. He stopped eating food with people that are not Jews.

Cross References

Luke 15:2

That upset the Jewish law teachers and the Pharisee mob, the men that were strong for the Jewish law, so they complained about Jesus. They said, “He is a friend of bad people. He even eats food with them.”

Acts 10:28

He said to them, “You know, you Roman people are not Jews, and the Jewish law teachers reckon that people that aren’t Jews are no good, so a Jewish man shouldn’t go into their house. But God showed me that I can’t say that anyone is no good. He showed me that it is all right for me to visit you.

Acts 12:17

Peter held up his hand to get them to be quiet, then he told them the story about how God got him out of that jail. Then he said, “Tell this story to the other Christians, and make sure you tell it to James too.” Then he left them and went to another place.

Galatians 2:14

I knew that they were not properly following God’s true message, so I talked straight to Peter in front of everyone. I said, “Listen, Peter, you are wrong. You are a Jew, but you have been living here like you are not a Jew. So you can’t turn around now and agree with this new mob. You can’t try to force these people that are not Jews to follow the same rules as us Jews.”

Galatians 2:9

The 3 very important leaders in Jerusalem were James, Peter and John. They heard how much God helped Barnabas and me in our work, and they understood that God gave me this special job. Then they were happy with us, and they shook hands with us to show that they are our friends. They agreed that we had to go to people that are not Jews, and they themselves had to go to the Jewish people.

Ephesians 2:15

You know, Jesus let people kill his body, and he died for all of us. When he did that, he made all those Jewish laws useless, along with all their rules. Jesus Christ died on the cross for everybody. He died for the Jewish people, and he died for the people that are not Jews. When he died, he stopped the Jews from being enemies with other people, and he brought both mobs to God, to be God’s friends. He brought them together into one new group.

Ephesians 3:6

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.

1 Thessalonians 5:22

But if it is wrong, or if it tells you to do a bad thing, don’t do it. Keep away from every sort of bad thing, and don’t listen to messages that don’t come from God.