By the grace that has been given to me, I say to every one of you, don’t think of yourself more highly than you should. Have a reasonable view of yourself, based on the faith God has given to each of you.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him, and if I have enough faith to move mountains, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing at all.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—not like robbers, or people who do other evil things, or those who commit adultery, or even like this tax collector.
I’ve made a fool of myself, but you forced me to. You should have been the ones to praise me. I’m not the least bit inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I’m nothing.
The people in Jerusalem who were considered to be important didn’t add anything to my message. (And it didn’t matter to me who they were anyway. God doesn’t see some people as more important than others.)
Some time ago a man named Theudas appeared and made great claims about himself. He got about 400 people to support him, but he was killed, his followers were scattered, and it all came to nothing.
James, Peter, and John, who are respected as pillars in the church, recognized that God had given me this privilege. So they shook hands with Barnabas and me to welcome us as partners. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles while they went to the Jews.