If you’ve been paying any attention to the media reports lately, you’ve probably noticed how much attention bullying, especially in schools, has been getting the headlines. I think there has always been bullying in school, though I agree, it’s not something that should be tolerated.
When I was in school in Hawaii growing up, I didn’t really encounter bullying until I got to intermediate school in the seventh grade. We all remember that we had many friends in elementary school, but when we graduated to intermediate school, we joined kids from other elementary schools who didn’t know us. And because they didn’t know us, we became targets of these bullies. I remember one bully in particular - Roger Tsukamoto.
Roger liked to wait for me along the back road entrance to our school. He, and a couple of his buddies from a different elementary school than mine, would wait by this little corner grocery a block from school. They harass me, slap at me, and attempt to get me to engage in a fight. I was an easy target because back then, I was very overweight and fat, and couldn’t have out run them if I tried, and I did.
Of course there was another way to go home, and frequently I took that street, walking with a couple of others - and I wasn’t bothered by Roger when I did it. But then he’d catch on and be waiting for me on that street corner, too, so I’d have to put up with him and his bullying again. And because it was off school property, administrators never got involved with it. Just me and Roger.
Peter and Barnabas faced some first century bullying by those in the church that advocated circumcision for Gentiles that became Christians. They were so intimidated by the Jewish converts that they withdrew fellowship from some of the Gentile believers. This was cowardly and hypocritical of them.
Paul refused to compromise on this issue and once again took a stand for the truth of the gospel. The false teachers and preachers that were trying to steal the Galatian believers’ freedom by imposing circumcision on them, were reprehensible to Paul.
Paul the Defender
“Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.” (2:1-2)
In verse 18 of chapter 1, Paul refers to his first visit to Jerusalem. During that time he stayed with Peter and James. This he did three years after his conversion on the road to Damascus. This is not recorded in the book of Acts, but the visit he makes note of in these verses does refer to his visit in Acts 11, a visit made because of the famine that was ongoing at that time.
Notice that Paul doesn’t go alone. Remember, Jewish law required that testimony be substantiated by other witnesses, at least two was required. Barnabas, a respected Jewish Christian and missionary on the first journey, could testify to God’s work among the Gentiles. Titus, an uncircumcised Gentile, authenticated his salvation experience as entirely by faith alone.
Paul’s visit, he notes, is made because of a revelation. He doesn’t explain the revelation, just that he had one and was there in response to it. He could be referring to what the prophet Agabus had said about a famine occurring in Jerusalem, and wanted to make them aware of what would soon be coming. With this in mind, Paul came to Jerusalem to defend the gospel of God’s grace.
Paul sets his gospel before the leaders at Jerusalem in the hope that he “might not be running, or have run, in vain.” His conviction that his gospel came from God and not from any human channels doesn’t mean that he felt he needed their endorsement. God’s authority was the only authority Paul needed.
It is likely that Paul feared for the future of the mission work to the Gentiles, and even the church at large, if the Jerusalem leaders rejected the Gentile Christians as full brothers and sisters apart from the rite of circumcision. If they rejected this, they would not be rejecting Paul - they would be rejecting God’s plan of making one people of God - both Jew and Gentile.
Titus the Example
“Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the mood the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.” (2:3-5)
Titus was an uncircumcised, Gentile Christian. Paul probably anticipated that certain Jewish Christians, namely the Judaizers, would demand that Titus be circumcised. The Judaizers held that in order to be a good Christian, accepted by the Jews, a man would have to be circumcised, and the Gentile converts would also have to adhere to the Jewish food laws and keep the Sabbath.
These troublemakers had infiltrated the Galatians churches, a multi-ethnic community of believers who were trying to enslave the Gentile converts to additional regulations drawn from their Jewish background Paul would have nothing of this described their attempts using military terminology.
As spies infiltrate an opponent on the battlefield, so the false brothers, the false teachers and preachers, infiltrated the churches of Galatia to spy out their freedom and ultimately enslave the Gentile converts to their roots in Jewish laws.
The truth of God was at stake. Because Paul viewed the conflict as a war, he refused even for a moment to “yield in submissions,” a phrase used in Greek literature for surrender in battle. If Paul yielded to the false brothers and circumcised Titus, the battle would be lost and all Gentile Christians would be enslaved. Paul felt like a freedom fighter. For Paul, these false brothers were deceivers working against God’s purposes. He refused to circumcise Titus.
God the Judge
“As for those who seemed to be important - whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance – those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.” (2:6-7)
The leaders of the Jerusalem church endorsed Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. God had called him to this ministry, he had been successful in it, and they recognized that the hand of God was upon him. But, Paul adds, they “added nothing” to his gospel. Paul has never hinted that he needed their approval or authorization to preach to the Gentiles, but he had it nevertheless.
Because of the Lord’s appearance to him on the road to Damascus, and then God’s call in his life, and the success he had in planting new churches, Paul considered himself to be an equal to the apostles in Jerusalem. God had entrusted Paul with the gospel to the Gentiles just as God had entrusted Peter with the gospel to the Jews.
God was the source of both men’s power and preaching. Look at verse 8: “For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.” It is important that we in the church always look carefully at the ministry a man or woman has, to see if we detect the hand of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit on that work. If we do, we need to bless it, praise God for it, and get out of the way. In no way do we need to hinder it.
The Hand of Fellowship
“James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” (2:9-10)
When I first came to Christ and joined the Waikiki Baptist Church following my baptism, I was extended “the right hand of fellowship” by the church members - and an occasional hug was also included. The opportunity to greet brothers and sisters in Christ has always been through the right hand of fellowship. As you see, the roots of this practice go all the way back to the early church.
By extending the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, the Jerusalem leaders were, in essence, extending the right hand of fellowship to Paul’s Gentile converts. As they received the apostle that was directly responsible for evangelizing so many, they were giving approval to those he discipled and organized into the many house churches in Asia Minor.
The final request made by the Jerusalem leadership was that Paul and Barnabas remember the poor. Does that seem an odd request to you? It certainly doesn’t follow the direction that Paul has been writing about in this letter. In order to understand this request, we have to read other letters that the apostle wrote.
In 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, Paul instructed the Corinthians to finish collecting their gracious gift for the saints in Jerusalem, a gift that Paul hoped to deliver himself. In 2 Corinthians 8-9, Paul called on the Corinthians to “finish the collection they had started.” The Corinthians were slow to fulfill the promise they had made to the church in Jerusalem.
Near the end of his third missionary journey, Paul wrote in Romans 15:25-26 that he hoped to come to Rome as soon as he completed a trip to Jerusalem “to serve the saints; for Macedonia and Achaia wee pleased to make a contribution to the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.”
We learn in Acts 24:17 that Paul successfully delivered the offering but was arrested shortly thereafter. Piecing the evidence together, it appears that Paul interpreted the request to remember the poor as an appeal for a collection that he would take from his Gentile-dominated churches as a gift for the Jewish-dominated church in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem church struggled economically due to famine, war, overpopulation, and excessive taxation. Thus, as soon as Paul began his second missionary journey, he began taking a collection from the churches he had planted in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. He continued the collection until the end of the third journey, at which time he carried it to Jerusalem as a show of unity between the Gentile-dominated churches he had planted and the mother church in Jerusalem.
They say, “what goes around comes around.” What started out as a controversy by the Judaizers to have Gentile converts undergo circumcision became an extension of the grace of God’s salvation by the Jerusalem leaders. Instead of putting additional requirements upon the Gentile churches, they concluded by asking for financial assistance at a time of challenging famine and hunger. And instead of refusing because of the controversy, Paul took their request to the churches he had planted among the Gentiles and they readily agreed to help.
From what I’ve observed, this church does the same. When we hear of others in need, we seek to help alleviate their problem. When we can, we help financially, either from the deacon fund or the general fund, or even from our own personal accounts. When we do this, we bless those who have a need. When we do this, God blesses us for our generosity. We do it cheerfully, expecting nothing in return. We have been blessed, and so we bless others. Just as they did 2,000 years ago.
