Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Galatians 2:1-10

¹Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. ²I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. ³But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ⁴This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; ⁵to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. ⁶But from those who were reputed to be important (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man)—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, ⁷but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised ⁸(for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles); ⁹and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. ¹⁰They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I wrote that I went up to Jerusalem "by revelation" (Galatians 2:2), I mean I did not go summoned like a servant reporting to his masters, dragged up to have my gospel approved. God sent me. And when I say I laid my gospel before them "privately before those who seemed influential" (Galatians 2:2), the word for "seemed" — those reputed to be something — I use with a certain edge. Their reputation was real, but no man's standing adds a grain to the truth of Christ crucified. And "compelled" (Galatians 2:3) — Titus was not forced to be circumcised. The whole battle was whether the gospel would be added to. It was not.

Where else you say this

The same thread runs through much of my writing. That the gospel came to me not from man but through Jesus Christ, I set down plainly just before this (Galatians 1:11-12). That no work of the law can justify — that a man is put right with God through faith — I labored over at length (Romans 3:28). And that God shows no partiality, that reputation and station mean nothing to him, I have said both to the Romans and elsewhere (Romans 2:11).

The situation

Men had come among the Galatians teaching that faith in Christ was not enough — that they must also be circumcised, must take up the law, to truly belong. This struck at the heart of everything. So I remind them what happened in Jerusalem: I brought Titus, a Greek, uncircumcised, and stood him before the pillars of the church. And they did not require it of him. James, Cephas, and John gave me the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9). The one thing they asked was that we remember the poor — which I was eager to do. The gospel I preach to the Gentiles was not a lesser thing, tolerated. It was owned as one gospel.

The hard question

A careful reader may ask: if your gospel needed no man's approval, why go up at all, and why does it matter that the pillars agreed with you? Does that not mean their word was your authority after all? No — and read closely. I did not go up to receive the gospel; I already had it. I went up so that the unity of the church might be shown, and so that I "might not be running or had not run in vain" (Galatians 2:2) — not vain in truth, but vain in effect, if the church were torn in two over it. Their agreement did not make my gospel true; it confirmed to all that the one truth had been given to Peter for the circumcised and to me for the Gentiles by the same God (Galatians 2:8).

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