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After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
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God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
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He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
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Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?
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No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
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The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
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When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me.
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Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.
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The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
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“ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
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that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ —
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things known from long ago.
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“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
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Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
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For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”