Poetry by the Book – Galatians 2:1-10

Poetry: Literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style, structure and rhythm.  

After fourteen years
I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas.
I took Titus along also
meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders
in response to a revelation.
I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.
I wanted to be sure I was not running,
and had not been running, my race in vain.

Some false believers had infiltrated our ranks
to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus
to make us slaves.
Yet not even Titus, who was with me,
was compelled to be circumcised
We did not give in to them for a moment,
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved.

God does not show favoritism
for those who were held in high esteem.
They recognized
I had been entrusted with preaching the gospel
to the uncircumcised
just as Peter had been to the circumcised.
For God,
at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised,
was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 

Those esteemed as pillars,
they agreed.
James, Cephas and John,
gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship
when they recognized the grace given to me.
We should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
The very thing I had been eager to do all along
was that we should continue to remember the poor.^a

^a NIV scripture used