Acts 15:9

He did the same thing for them that he did for us. They believed in him, and he made them clean from the wrong things they did.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

In Context

8God always knows what people are thinking, and when those people that are not Jews believed in Jesus, God gave them the Holy Spirit to show them that he wants them in his family too. You see, at first he gave the Holy Spirit to us, then he gave the Holy Spirit to those people that are not Jews.

10So, why are you telling those Christians that are not Jews to do something that is too hard for them? You are making God angry. You know that we can’t keep all of the law of Moses. It is too hard for us, and it was too hard for our grand-fathers too.

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Cross References

Acts 10:28He said to them, “You know, you Roman people are not Jews, and the Jewish law teachers reckon that people that aren’t Jews are no good, so a Jewish man shouldn’t go into their house. But God showed me that I can’t say that anyone is no good. He showed me that it is all right for me to visit you.

Acts 10:43But listen, a long time ago, God sent his men to tell people his messages, and they all talked about Jesus. They said that if anyone believes in him, God will say that they are not guilty of the bad things they did.”

Acts 14:1The same thing happened in the town called Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish meeting house, and they talked strongly about Jesus to the people there. They told them that God is very good to people. And a big mob of people believed in Jesus. Some of them were Jews, and some of them were not Jews. But there were other Jewish people that didn’t believe in Jesus, and they talked to the other people that were not Jews, and they got them to hate the Christians. So the people of Iconium split up into 2 mobs. One mob reckoned that Paul and Barnabas were right, but the other mob reckoned those Jewish people were right. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Iconium a long time, and they kept on telling people about Jesus, and they were not frightened of anyone. And God helped Paul and Barnabas do powerful things, to show that they were telling the true story about Jesus.

Romans 3:9So what about those of us that are Jewish people? Will God be more good to us than to other people? No way. Both Jewish people and other people do bad things, just like I already said.

Romans 3:29So now, what do you reckon? Is God just the God of the Jewish people, or is he the God of other people that are not Jews too? Of course he is God of both. He is God for the people that are not Jewish as well as for the Jews.

Matthew Henry on Acts 15:7-22

The Council at Jerusalem. 6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. 7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by… Read the whole commentary →

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