Acts 21:21

¹⁹For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law,^[+] that I might gain those who are under the law; ²¹to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.

¹²As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised, just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, so that they may boast in your flesh. ¹⁴But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

¹Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

²Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. ³Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ⁴You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. ⁵For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.

¹⁹Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. ²¹For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!”

¹⁸Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping God’s commandments.

¹Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. ²One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. ³Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.

⁵One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. ⁶He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks.

¹³and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. ¹⁴For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

¹⁷After three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, “I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,

³Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.