The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 137

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-10.-TM apostolic conference. Fourteen years elapsed between the first and second visits of Paul as apostle to Jerusalem. During this interval of severe work he had experienced the opposition of the Judaizers. He deemed it advisable, therefore, and was also impelled by the Spirit, to go up to have a conference with the apostles about the whole policy to be pursued in the Gentile mission. In the verses before us he relates what took place in connection with the conference. And here we learn- I. How AGREE.ABLE TO THE MIND OF THE .SPIBIT THE CONFERENCE OF BRETHREN IS. (Ver. 2.) For Paul went up with Barnabas and Titus "by -revelation." The Spirit impelled him t.o confer with the apostles at Jerusalem, and to strengthen his own judgment by securing theirs. And in the conference he seems to have laid before them the gospel of free grace which for fourteen years he had been preaching among the Gentiles. His statement was an exposition of his message, how he had taught the Gentiles that they were to be justified by faith and not by ceremony. Moreover, he was careful to enter into conference only with those who were. of reputation, whose judgment would command respect, i.nd t0 insist on the conference being private and confidential. Now, there can be no question about the great value of such confidential interchanges of thought by brethren. Even when there is not much light shed upon the path of duty, as seems to have been the case here, there is yet the confirmation ot the Lord's servants in the propriety of their course. !I. JN CONTENTION WITH OTHERS WE SHOULD HA Vil: CLEARLY BEFORE UB THE INTERESTS OF THE GOSPEL. (Vers. 3-5.) Titus, who accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, had been Paul's companion in Galatia and in the mission tours of Asia Minor. He '\\'.RB a Greek, a Gentile therefore, as distinct from a Jew. He had not, like Timothy, any Jewish blood io his veins. When the J udaizers, therefore, urged that Titus should be circumcised, and so become a proselyte to Jewish ceremonials, Paul resisted the demand so determinedly that no circumcision of Titus ever took place. In doing so, Paul had the interests of truth clearly in view. Had he yielded to the clamour, the gospel would have ceBBed practically to be a power in Galatia. It would not have continued with them. It would have been said, on the contrary, that salvation does not come by faith alone, but by ceremony as welL It was the interests of the gospel which Paul had OII. II, 1-21.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 103