麥克謙一年通讀

The Gospel to the Gentiles Affirmed by the Apostles

¹Fourteen years afterward I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, and I took Titus also with me.

²It was in obedience to a revelation that I went; and I laid before the apostles the good news that I am proclaiming among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those who are thought highly of because I was afraid that I might possibly be taking, or might have already taken, a course which would prove useless.

³Yet even my companion, Titus, though a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised.

⁴But, because of those who pretended to be followers who had stolen in, the intruders who had crept in to spy on the liberty which we have through union with Christ Jesus, in order to bring us back to slavery –

⁵Why, we did not for a moment yield submission to them, so that the truth of the good news might be yours always!

⁶Of those who are thought somewhat highly of – what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not recognize human distinctions – those, I say, who are thought highly of added nothing to my message.

⁷On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been for the Jews.

⁸For he who gave Peter power for his mission to the Jews gave me, also, power to go to the Gentiles.

⁹Recognizing the charge entrusted to me, James, Peter, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the church, openly acknowledged Barnabas and me as fellow workers, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

¹⁰Only we were to remember the poor – the thing I was myself anxious to do.

Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch

¹¹But, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face; for he stood self-condemned.

¹²Before certain persons came from James, he had been in the habit of eating with the Gentile converts; but, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold aloof, because he was afraid of offending those who still held to circumcision.

¹³The rest of the Jewish converts were guilty of the same hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led away by it.

¹⁴But, when I saw that they were not dealing straightforwardly with the truth of the good news, I said to Peter, before them all, “If you, who were born a Jew, adopt Gentile customs, instead of Jewish, why are you trying to compel the Gentile converts to adopt Jewish customs?”

Justified by Faith

¹⁵We, though we are Jews by birth and not sinners of Gentile origin, know that no one is pronounced righteous as the result of obedience to Law, but only through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶So we placed our faith in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be pronounced righteous, as the result of faith in Christ, and not of obedience to Law; for such obedience will not result in even one soul’s being pronounced righteous.

¹⁷If, while seeking to be pronounced righteous through union with Christ, we were ourselves seen to be sinners, would that make Christ an agent of sin? Heaven forbid!

¹⁸For, if I rebuild the things that I pulled down, I prove myself to have done wrong.

¹⁹I, indeed, through Law became dead to Law, in order to live for God.

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ. So it is no longer I that live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and, as for my present earthly life, I am living it by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹I do not reject the love of God. If righteousness comes through Law, then there was no need for Christ to die!

God's Deeds Handed Down to the Generations

¹My people, attend to my teaching:

²as I open my mouth in a poem

³What we have heard and known,

⁴we will not hide from their children.

⁵He set up a testimony in Jacob,

⁶that the next generation should know it,

⁷that in God they might put their confidence,

⁸and not be like their ancestors,

⁹Ephraimites, armed bowmen,

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant,

¹¹They forgot what he had done,

¹²He did wonders before their ancestors

¹³Through the sea which he split he brought them,

¹⁴he led them by day with a cloud,

¹⁵From the rocks which he split in the wilderness,

¹⁶He brought streams out of the rock,

¹⁷Yet they still went on sinning against him,

¹⁸They willfully challenged God,

¹⁹“Is God able,” such was their challenge,

²⁰From the rock that he struck there gushed water,

²¹When the Lord heard this, he was furious,

²²For they put no trust in God,

²³So he summoned the clouds above;

²⁴he rained manna upon them for food,

²⁵Everyone ate the bread of angels;

²⁶He launched the east wind in the heavens,

²⁷He rained meat upon them like dust,

²⁸In the midst of their camp he dropped it,

²⁹They ate and were more than filled;

³⁰But the thing they desired became loathsome:

³¹the wrath of God rose against them.

³²Yet for all this they sinned yet more,

³³So he ended their days in a breath,

³⁴When he slew them, then they sought after him,

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth,

³⁷Their heart was not steady with him,