Jesus was at table indoors, and many taxgatherers and sinners had come to be guests with him and his disciples. So when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with taxgatherers and sinners?"

Now Levi was at table in his own house, and he had many taxgatherers and sinners as guests along with Jesus and his disciples ??for there were many of them among his followers. So when some scribes of the Pharisees saw he was eating with sinners and taxgatherers they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with taxgatherers and sinners?"

Levi held a great banquet for him in his house; there was a large company present of taxgatherers and others who were guests along with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with taxgatherers and sinners?"

Now the tax gatherers and sinners were all approaching him to listen to him, but the Pharisees and the scribes complained, "He welcomes sinners and eats along with them!"

Before certain emissaries of James arrived, he ate along with the Gentile Christians; but when they arrived, he began to draw back and hold aloof, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

God also gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, whom he circumcised on the eighth day, Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

abstain from food that has been offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual vice. Keep clear of all this and you will prosper. Goodbye."

The Samaritan woman said, "What? You are a Jew, and you ask me for a drink ??me, a Samaritan!" (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

These twelve men Jesus despatched with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, rather make your way to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As the time for his assumption was now due, he set his face for the journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers in front of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because his face was turned in the direction of Jerusalem.

To them Peter said, "You know yourselves it is illegal for a Jew to join or accost anyone belonging to another nation; but God has shown me that I must not call any man common or unclean,

These twelve men Jesus despatched with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town,

Going away from there Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a woman of Canaan came out of these parts and wailed, "Have pity on me, Lord, O Son of David! My daughter is cruelly possessed by a daemon." But he made no answer to her. Then his disciples came up and pressed him, saying, "Send her away, she is wailing behind us."read more.
He replied, "It was only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, do help me." He replied, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." "No, sir," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." At that Jesus replied, "O woman, you have great faith; your prayer is granted as you wish." And from that hour her daughter was cured.

Leaving there, he went away to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wished no one to know of it, but he could not escape notice; a woman heard of him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, and she came in and fell at his feet (the woman was a pagan, of Syrophoenician birth) begging him to cast the daemon out of her daughter.read more.
He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first of all; it is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She answered him, "No, sir, but under the table the dogs do pick up the children's crumbs." He said to her, "Well, go your way; the daemon has left your daughter, since you have said that." So she went home and found the child lying in bed and the daemon gone from her.

Then from the house of Caiaphas they took Jesus to the praetorium. (It was early morning.) They would not enter the praetorium themselves, in case of being ceremonially defiled, for they wanted to eat the passover;

Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party fell foul of him. "You went into the houses of the uncircumcised," they said, "and you ate with them!"read more.
Then Peter proceeded to put the facts before them. "I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me, and when I looked steadily at it, I noted the quadrupeds of the earth, the wild beasts, the creeping things and the wild birds. Also I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' I said, 'No, no, my Lord; nothing common or unclean has ever passed my lips.' But a voice answered me for the second time out of heaven, 'What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common.' This happened three times, and then the whole thing was drawn back into heaven. At that very moment three men reached the house where I was living, sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation in accompanying them; these six brothers went with me as well, and we entered the man's house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is surnamed Peter; he will tell you how you and all your household are to be saved.' Now just as I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning; and I remembered the saying of the Lord, that 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy Spirit.' Well then, if God has given them exactly the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I ??how could I try to thwart God?" On hearing this they desisted and glorified God, saying, "So God has actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live!"

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. The man stood self-condemned. Before certain emissaries of James arrived, he ate along with the Gentile Christians; but when they arrived, he began to draw back and hold aloof, because he was afraid of the circumcision party. The rest of the Jewish Christians also played false along with him, so much so that even Barnabas was carried away by their false play.

But certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and taught the brothers that "unless you get circumcised after the custom of Moses you cannot be saved."

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

Here, listen to Paul! I tell you, if you get circumcised, Christ will be no use to you. I insist on this again to everyone who gets circumcised, that he is obliged to carry out the whole of the Law. You are for justification by the Law? Then you are done with Christ, you have deserted grace,read more.
for it is by faith that 'we' wait in the Spirit for the righteousness we hope for; in Christ Jesus circumcision is not valid, neither is uncircumcision, but only faith active in love.

These men who are keen upon you getting circumcised are just men who want to make a grand display in the flesh ??it is simply to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism;

The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us;

For by one Spirit we have all been baptized into one Body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or freemen; we have all been imbued with one Spirit.

I simply want to ask you one thing: did you receive the Spirit by doing what the Law commands or by believing the gospel message? Are you such fools? Did you begin with the spirit only to end now with the flesh? Have you had all that experience for nothing (if it has really gone for nothing)?read more.
When He supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, is it because you do what the Law commands or because you believe the gospel message?

but since we know a man is justified simply by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing what the Law commands, we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus so as to get justified by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands ??for by doing what the Law commands no person shall be justified.

in cleansing their hearts by faith he made not the slightest distinction between us and them. Well now, why are you trying to impose a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we ourselves could bear? No, it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we believe and are saved, in the same way as they are."

We hold a man is justified by faith apart from deeds of the Law altogether. Or is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of the Gentiles as well? Surely he is. Well then, there is one God, a God who will justify the circumcised as they believe and the uncircumcised on the score of faith.

Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness. In what way? When he was a circumcised man or an uncircumcised man? Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised. He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,read more.
as well as a father of those circumcised persons who not only share circumcision but walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had as an uncircumcised man.