Galatians Chapter 2
Originally posted Thursday August 14, 2008
Galatians Chapter 2:1-10 Paul Visits the Apostles
Paul has established
his credentials as an apostle to the Gentiles, relating his call and the Gospel
that had been given "in Christ." He has emphasized the purity and
authority of the Gospel he preaches by claiming there has been no human
influence or suggestion that it be changed. He did not ask for anyone's
opinion, not even from Cephas or James during his Jerusalem visit. Now
after fourteen years and a long and successful mission among the Gentiles,
he has returned to Jerusalem (Acts 15)
accompanied by Barnabas, a Jewish Christian, and Titus, a converted Greek who
had become a trusted evangelist working in Macedonia and Corinth. As with the
giving of the Gospel, this journey is in response to a Spirit revelation. The
purpose of this visit was to present to the
"acknowledged leaders" of the Mother Church the content of the
Gospel he had been preaching among the Gentiles. The
"acknowledged leaders" are not identified, but it would have been a
larger group than the original Apostles. Luke refers to an
initial leadership group of one hundred and ten involved in replacing
Judas (Acts 1:15). Paul
expresses a concern that what he is proclaiming might be
found deficient. His previous insistence that any change in
the Gospel he preaches would be a perversion (1:7) leads us to ask why he would be subjecting
it to any human examination. This may have been conciliatory language to
show the Galatians that what he had delivered to them had been presented -
tested, by the "acknowledged leadership." He follows with the
important point that they accepted Titus in their midst and made no
requirement for him to be circumcised. Paul mentions this
as emphasis that not only did the gathered leaders accept the content of his
preaching, they accepted into the ranks of believers an uncircumcised Greek.
However, there were
those whom Paul calls "false believers" (the Pharisaic believers of Acts 15:5) who had been "secretly
brought in" - by whom we do not know, to hear what Paul had to say. Their
opinion was well known. They favored a requirement that any Gentile
who wished to be converted must be circumcised and take an oath to keep the
Mosaic tradition of ritual purity. For Paul this was a form of slavery and, for
the benefit of the Galatian readers, he writes that he rejected their
demands "so that the truth of the Gospel might always remain with [the
Galatians]." Other than this failed interruption in Paul's visit the
results were supportive of his mission as well as the content on his
preaching. In something of a dismissive comment Paul suggests that the
leadership's authority is no more binding than his as it related to his
mission. They had nothing to add to what Paul was preaching or to his
insistence that the Gentiles remain free from the imposition
of circumcision and any other peculiarly Jewish holiness tradition.
In Paul's thinking
the outcome of the meeting was a confirmation of what he had presented to the
Galatians. Those outsiders who were disputing his authority and his
preaching were, as named in Jerusalem, the false believers." Paul was
right, they were not. Paul had been accepted and sent by Christ as the
apostle to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been accepted and sent by Christ
as the apostle to the circumcised. As a seal upon this affirmation
Paul and Barnabas were given the right hand of fellowship by the three
"acknowledged pillars" of the church, James, Cephas and John. All that
was added was a request that they "remember the poor," a request we
read as being fulfilled in 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
Galatians Chapter 2:11-15 Paul Rebukes Peter at
Antioch
However definitive
the Jerusalem leadership's decision in favor of Paul's mission to the
Gentiles had been the opposition was not intimidated. Paul and Barnabas
returned to Antioch to continue their mission in Syria. Later they were joined
by Cephas who was carrying out his own mission to the Jews of the area. While
there he shared in the harmonious relationship of Jewish and Gentile
Christians in which there had been no conflicts over religious
traditions. The two groups worshipped as well as ate together without
difficulty. It was the ideal "unity in Christ" Paul had sought and
promoted wherever he went. It would not last. The assault on
Paul's mission occurred when "certain people came from James."
The "certain people" who arrived were the Pharisaic Jewish
Christians mentioned in 2:4.
That Paul writes "they came from James" provides all we need to know
about James' Jewish conservatism and Paul's annoyance. What he suspects is
James' interference if not a certain deceitfulness in giving his word by the
offering of his "right hand of fellowship," as good as an oath. Under
the pressure of the visitors the community table was divided
along cultural lines. The circumcised separated themselves from the
uncircumcised. First Cephas stopped eating with the Gentiles. Then other Jews
who saw Cephas' response to the men from James felt obliged to follow his lead.
Even Barnabas, Paul's fellow apostle and faithful companion through
nearly fourteen years of mission work, joined in what Paul calls hypocrisy. His
anger with Cephas is evident as he writes, "I opposed him to his
face" for not keeping faith "with the truth of the
Gospel." The confrontation was not private. Paul confronted
Cephas before the entire community with this breach of trust. How, Paul asks,
can Cephas the Jew be living like a Gentile free of the traditions of the
law (eating with them at the same table) and the turn away from
them by compelling the Gentiles to adopt these same Jewish
traditions? This, Paul says, is hypocrisy.
Paul now makes his
point to the Galatians concerning the proper understanding of the Gospel.
Against the argument from Judaism which says that while faith in Christ is
necessary, justification - the forgiveness of sin and God's gift of
righteousness, does not come through Christ. It is gained
through obedience to the Law of Moses, specifically the holiness commandments.
For Paul justification, one's freedom "from the present evil
age," is found in one's faith in Christ as the one through whom God
reconciles the world to himself (2 Cor.
5:8). All the Law has achieved is to highlight the pervasive nature of sin
in the world. Christ brings life. The law brings death.
Galatians Chapter 2:15-21 Salvation for All by Faith
Paul summarizes the
key points of the Gospel he preaches:
1. A person is
justified (forgiven) by faith in Christ, not by works of the law.
2. A person who
seeks to be justified by the law remains a sinner.
3. We believe in
Christ so that we can be justified by our faith in Christ.
4. No one can be
justified by works of the law.
In an allusion to
Cephas, Barnabas and the other Jews who separated themselves from the
Gentiles, Paul asks, "what if we seek to be justified by
Christ but at the same time we try to re-establish that which we have torn
down (re-imposing holiness requirements)? The answer is obvious to
Paul. We would have become servants of the law again and found to be
transgressors since forgiveness only comes through faith in Christ. The
Galatians must know that their faith has freed them from the law - they have
died to the law and it has no hold on them. In their baptism they have died
with Christ and have been raised to new life in Christ. In a flight of
mystical genius Paul claims that this new life we live is no longer our
own but is Christ living through us. Only through faith do we enter the
mystery, where we are found to have died to ourselves and come alive to
Christ. To paraphrase what Paul wrote in 2nd Cor. 12:4, we have "read things that are not to be told."
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