Galatians 2:2 Commentary and Bible Study

There was no question about whether the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles; Peter had been shown this personally by the Lord (Acts 10). The key unresolved issue was, what Jewish practices should the Gentiles be required to follow? There were two ways of looking at this, and even though Paul was quite clear about the issue, he knew that his enemies were bound to confuse matters. One question was, ‘What is necessary for salvation?’ On this Paul would not budge an inch. The other question was, ‘To what extent should Gentiles avoid practices which offend the Jewish conscience?’ Here Paul himself made concessions and would soon after circumcise Timothy. There was no principle at stake, and he would work hard not to allow anything that did not really matter to become a stumbling block to the Jews.‘Lest by any means I should run, or had run in vain.’ Some understand Paul to mean that his preaching would be in vain unless this problem was sorted out, because otherwise the Judaizers would continue to successfully undermine his work. This would make his concern a practical one. But Paul, who believed in the overruling sovereignty of God would not use such strong terms to describe his enemies’ ability to hinder God’s work. Could mere men or even Satan himself render the preaching of the gospel in vain? Certainly not. The metaphor of a race is taken from the athletic stadium. The sense in which the race could be in vain is not that the runner would be impeded, but that he would be disqualified. He is perhaps running on the wrong day, or he is starting from the wrong place, or he is not following the correct course. Furthermore he does not speak only of his future labours, but of his past labours. This can only mean that he raises the possibility of his having preached and continuing to preach a defective gospel, for the settling of a question in the present could not do anything to affect his past work unless that question was about the nature of his message.Many commentators do not like to accept that Paul was willing to even mention the possibility, but of course he does so because that was the question raised by his enemies. Paul did not have the slightest uncertainty about his calling, his gospel or his apostleship. He was also confident that God would cause the apostles to confirm his calling, but the matter had to be put before them. The real doubters were the Judaizers. He had to silence his critics and the only way that he could do so was to have the Jerusalem apostles confirm his work. This might appear to make Paul answerable to the Jerusalem apostles for what he taught, and so it is not surprising that in the Galatians record of this meeting, Paul says what Luke omits to say – that it was by revelation that he went to Jerusalem. The trip to Jerusalem was to convince other minds besides his own, but since it was right that he should go, he expresses in these words the charges brought against him by his enemies.Why did the meeting need to be private? Because this was a matter for the apostles alone to decide. No other party had any right to judge in this case. There were certainly others of a different mind, but Paul sought the judgment of the apostles and later in this chapter, that is what he tells us he obtained.