Acts 15:5–21

⁵But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and declared, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” ⁶So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter.

⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? ¹¹On the contrary, we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹²The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³When they had finished speaking, James declared, “Brothers, listen to me! ¹⁴Simon^a has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own. ¹⁵The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

¹⁶‘After this I will return and rebuild

the fallen tent of David.

Its ruins I will rebuild,

and I will restore it,

¹⁷so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,

says the Lord who does these things

¹⁸that have been known for ages.’^b

¹⁹It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. ²¹For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”