Galatians 2:1-5 “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. (2) And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. (3) Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. (4) And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage), (5) to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”
For the first six years of the church’s existence she consisted of only Jewish believers. And then the Lord dealt with Peter in a vision, and he preached the gospel to the gentiles for the first time, in Cornelius’ house. If you study the bible, you will see that Paul began to preach the gospel to the gentiles in Syria and Cilicia at about the same time that Peter did. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that after Paul had been in the ministry for a period of seventeen years, he and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to have a meeting with Peter, James and John. The purpose of the meeting was so that he could communicate to them the gospel that he had been preaching to the gentiles. It was at that meeting that Peter, James and John realised that the Lord had given Paul far more revelation than they had, particularly with regards to the preaching of the gospel to the gentiles. And so they deferred to Paul when it came to preaching the gospel to the gentiles, while they concentrated on preaching the gospel to the Jews. It is important to note that Paul makes a comment about Titus at this meeting. Titus was Paul’s first gentile disciple, and he had gone up with Paul and Barnabas for this meeting. At the meeting, Peter, James and John had no problem with Titus being present, and had no problem fellowshipping with Titus, even though he was a gentile. Had this meeting taken place eleven years before, Peter, James and John would never have allowed Titus to attend, for they would not have had deemed it lawful for them to have contact with a gentile. But the Lord had since dealt with the apostles on that issue, when He instructed Peter to preach the gospel to Cornelius and the other gentiles (Acts 10:28). After Paul had his meeting with Peter and the other apostles, the Holy Spirit then sent Barnabas and Paul out on their first missionary journey. It was during that first trip, that multitudes of gentiles were added to the church, and many churches were started by Paul and Barnabas. The Lord also added some Jewish believers during that time, but the clear majority that were brought into the church, were gentile believers. When Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel to the new churches that they planted, they never once instructed them to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses. They did not teach the gentile believers to begin eating kosher food or to begin observing the Jewish calendar. That teaching never formed part of the gospel that Paul preached to the gentiles. And don’t forget, that the Lord Jesus is the one who instructed Paul what gospel to preach to the gentiles (Galatians 1:12). After their first missionary trip, Paul and Barnabas returned to their base church at Antioch, and gave feedback to that church as to how many gentiles the Lord had added to the church, and the many miracles that He had performed through their ministries. Paul and Barnabas then remained in Antioch for a period of time. It was during that time, that Peter came down to the church at Antioch to spend some time with them. When Peter came to Antioch, the church as a whole had been in existence for about twenty years, and the gentile believers had been part of the church for fourteen of those twenty years. Up until that time, there had been no teaching given to the gentile believers about being circumcised and keeping the Law of Moses. But that was all about to change; for Satan had since learned that he could bring gentile believers into bondage, if he could get them to begin observing the law. It is only through sin that Satan can bring the believer into bondage. The church was something new for Satan. He had never been exposed to something like this before. He had learned that he could not bring Jewish believers into bondage by tempting them to keep the law, because God allowed them to keep the law, and gave them grace in this area. But he had since found out that God did not allow gentile believers to keep the law, and He had not given them grace in this area. Therefore, gentile believers would be committing sin if they kept the law, because they would be transgressing God’s commandment for them. And so Satan sent false brethren into the church, to tempt gentile believers into keeping the law.
Acts 15:1-2 “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." (2) Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.”
We pick up the account in Acts chapter fifteen. The “certain men” that Luke refers to in this passage of scripture quoted above, are the false brethren that Paul referred to in his letter to the Galatians (Galatians 2:4). In Paul’s letter, he tells us that these false brethren came into the church with the express purpose of bringing the gentile church into bondage. As we can see from the above account, Paul and Barnabas had a huge dispute with these false brethren, when they tried to introduce this teaching to the gentile church. These men that had come down from Judea had come into the church at Antioch with some credibility. They were not people who were unknown among the Jewish believers. For when they came to the church at Antioch, they were able to claim that the apostle James had sent them. As we will see later; James had sent them, but was not aware of the false teaching that they were going to introduce to the church. James had sent them there, because they had assured him that they were going there to simply encourage the brethren. Because these men were known among the Jewish believers, Peter and even Barnabas were initially influenced by their false doctrine.
Galatians 2:11-14 “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; (12) for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. (13) And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. (14) But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?”
In his letter to the churches in Galatia (quoted above), the apostle Paul gives us some further insight as to what transpired on this occasion. And so we see that these false brethren had also tried to re-introduce the teaching to the Jewish believers, that gentiles were unclean. Apparently their influence among the Jewish believers was that strong, that even Barnabas was caught up in it. Paul, as the Lord’s apostle to the gentiles, was the only one not influenced by them. Paul must have dealt with Barnabas privately to sort him out, because he eventually joined Paul in disputing these false brethren’s doctrine. Paul, on the other hand, dealt with Peter publicly. The reason Paul did this in front of everyone, was because Paul knew that the Lord Jesus Himself, had specifically dealt with Peter on this very issue fourteen years before, when He had instructed Peter to preach the gospel to the gentiles. And so Peter had no excuse, and was to be blamed for not taking a stand against the false doctrine proclaimed by these false brethren.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments