The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 86

VI. THE PROMPTNESS il~ INDEPENDE~"T ACTION OJ!' THE APOSTLE AFTER HIS CALL, "Immediately I conferred not with :flesh and blood." Ee took no counsel with mortal man ; he did not take the usual methods of men in determining their conduct in· critical cases; therefore there was no reason for the Judaists to affirm.that, after he had received his revelation, it Wlderwcnt modification at the hands of men. There are times for tho11ghtful and even prolonged consideration, but where God's will is perfectly clear there is no need to consult man. Onr first duty to Christ is a prompt obedience. Vers. 17-24.-Proo/s of his entirely independent course after conversion. The apostle adduces three or four separate facts to prove his independence .of the apostles and of Judaic influence. L HIS FIBST JOURNEY AFTER HIS CONVERSION WAS NOT TO JERUSALEM. "Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me." It was very necessary for him to show that he received no instructions from the apost!'es at the commencement of bis ministry, for the Judaists were saying to the Galatians," Ye are the disciples of the apostles; so is Paul ; therefore he has no superiority over us." But he did not go to Jerusalem to rehearse bis experience or to receive either instrcction or authority from them. When he did go, it was not by commnnd of the apostles, but entirely of his own accord. In his reference to them he sets himself strictly. by their side, conceding to them no superiority except upon this one point of priority of calling-they _were "apostles before me." • !I. HIS FIRST ACT AFTER CONVERSION WAS HIS WITHDRAWAL INTO ARABIA. "But I went into Arabia." 1. This/act showed that he had at once placed himself completely beyond the reach of human irijluence. It was a proof of his statement that he did not confer with flesh and blood. 2. His retirement to .Arabia-that is, to tlie. Sinaitic peninsula-was evidently for the purpose of solitary communion with God. There would be a natural yearning, after snch a scene as broke his life into two widely sundered parts, to be for a time alone with God, that he might receive in his hel\rt the healing of those wounds which the hand of Divine mercy had inflicted, as well as to learn by revelation the glories of the gospel which was entrusted to him for promulgation among the Gentiles. 3. Tliis my~terious pause at the beginning of his career lasted a consider- able time. It is not possible to say whether it was the whole of three years; for the text merely asserts it was three years from the date of his conversion,till his first visit to Jerusalem, and we know that after his conversion he stayed a few days (nµlpas -rivds) with the disciples at Damascus, and returned again from Arabia to Damascus. Yet ii is probable that he was the most part of three years in Arabia, as a sort of substitute, we may suppose, for the three years' personal training of the other apostles under Chri&t.  OH, I, 1-24,) THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 61