Galatians 2:9

Plain English Version

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.

Cross References

John 1:42

So Andrew took Simon to meet Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, “You are Simon and your father’s name is John. I will call you Kefas.” (In their language, that word Kefas means stone, and Peter is another name that means stone, so we usually call him Peter.)

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.

Acts 15:13

They finished talking, then James stood up and said, “My friends, listen to me.

Acts 15:7

They talked about it for a long time, and then Peter stood up and said to them, “My friends, you know that God picked me, and I was the first person to go to the people that are not Jews to tell them the good news about Jesus. God did that so that they could hear about Jesus and believe in him.

Acts 4:36

One of the Christians that sold their land was Joseph. Jesus’s special workers called him Barnabas. That name means helper. He was from the island called Cyprus, and he belonged to the Levi tribe.

Romans 1:5

And you know, God is very good to me. He picked me to be Jesus’s special worker. He told me to go to people that are not Jews to tell them about Jesus, and get them to believe in him and do whatever he says.

Romans 12:3

God wants me to tell you this, and he helps me to say it. Don’t think that you are better than you really are, but think properly about yourself. God himself makes it possible for you to believe in him, so think about how much you trust him. That is the important thing.

1 Corinthians 15:10

But God was very good to me. He changed me and made me the way I am now. And so more people heard the good news about Jesus. You see, I’ve worked harder than any of his other special workers. But it wasn’t really me that did that work. No. It was God that gave me the power to do his work, so he is the one that did it.

Galatians 1:16

God wanted me to go and tell the message about Jesus to the people that are not Jews. So he showed Jesus to me, and he told me all about him. Then I believed in Jesus. God told me that message, so I didn’t ask anybody else about it.

Galatians 1:18

Then, 3 years later, I went south to Jerusalem to meet Peter. I stayed there with him for only 15 days.

Galatians 2:1

Then, 14 years later, God told me to go to Jerusalem again. This time I went with Barnabas, and I took Titus with me too. We had a little meeting there, with just the important church people, and I told them all about the message that I teach to the people that are not Jews. I wanted to see if they agreed with what I was doing. I didn’t want anyone to mess up my work.

Galatians 6:3

Don’t think that you are too important to help other Christians. If you are not very important, but you reckon you are really important, then you are just tricking yourself.

Ephesians 2:20

I will use a house as a picture story. It is like God used Jesus and all his people to build a special house for himself. He used Jesus Christ to start building that house. He is the most important one. Then God used Jesus’s special workers, and the other people that told God’s messages. They are like the cement slab that the house sits on. Now God is using you mob, with us Jewish mob, to make the rest of the house. It is like God’s people are the bricks and the wood. You mob are not Jews, but you are still part of that house. God’s spirit carefully joins us together, to make that house bigger all the time, and God lives in his special house. That picture of a house shows us that God is living in us all the time.

Ephesians 3:8

I’m not important. All of God’s people are more important than me. But God was good to me, and he gave me this special job. He sent me to tell the people that are not Jews about the really great things that Jesus Christ can give them. These things are so great that nobody can understand them properly.

Colossians 1:29

So I work really hard to do that. It is hard work, but Jesus Christ gives me his power, and he makes me strong.

1 Timothy 3:15

so that you will know the way we have to do things in the church. You know, we are God’s family, and his family is his church. God is always alive, and the people in his church always have to keep on teaching his true word. You know how a house is held up by the big posts that are set in concrete. Well, we people in God’s church, we are like those posts. We are holding up God’s true word, so we have to teach it properly.