God’s Word for You

Galatians 2:6-7 No supremacy among men

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, June 12, 2024

6 And from those who were considered important (what they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—to me, those men who seemed influential added nothing. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the Jews.

Is Paul being rude? No. He is stating his case so forcefully as to shut the mouths of the Judaizers so that they could not claim that he was showing favoritism to anybody, by pointing out that God himself shows favoritism to no one at all (1 Samuel 16:7). He talks about the apostles as “those who were considered important.” Who considered them to be that? Probably every Christian who knew them or knew about them, except that Paul says that their status didn’t really make any difference, since men can fall from their status—for surely Judas Iscariot fell. Judas should not be held in esteem by anyone. Jehoram of Judah is another case like this. As King of Judah, the people owed him obedience and even honor under the Fourth Commandment, but when he died, it was “to no one’s regret” (2 Chronicles 21:20). Jehoram was a murderer, an idolater, and he seemed to do everything he could to bring the wrath of Judah’s enemies upon the nation so that they were nearly destroyed by the Edomites and Philistines, and he ignored a warning sent by God’s prophet, Elijah. He “seemed to be someone,” but he was a condemned sinner in God’s sight, leading people away from the promist of Christ. So Paul treated even the apostles like Peter and John as ordinary men; and yet they were men called by God to be his ministers on earth. Therefore Paul talked with them, and they compared their teaching.

What mattered to Paul and matters to us is that the apostles added nothing to Paul’s message at all. What are the holy Scriptures? They agreed completely. Who is the one true God? As one believed, so did all the others. Sin? All agreed on the same definition, the source, the result, the penalty. Salvation? By Christ alone, through God’s grace and no effort or work on the part of sinful man. The work of the Holy Spirit? All were in agreement about the Spirit’s work and role in conversion, faith, justification and sanctification, the nature of good works that follow after faith, prayer, election, and everything else. The means of Grace? All agreed: The means of grace are the Gospel in the Word and the Gospel in the Sacraments. They added nothing.

The attitude of the apostles is similar to that of Moses when the seventy elders of Israel were prophesying in the tent, and then two others, Eldad and Medad, were found down in the camp among the people, also prophesying. When Joshua cried out, “Stop them,” Moses answered: “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all of the LORD’s people were prophets so that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29). Just as Moses was delighted to find more men proclaiming the gospel, so also Peter and John were delighted to meet Paul, proclaiming the very same gospel.

So instead of adding anything at all to Paul’s message, on the contrary, they did not add a single word or syllable to what Paul was preaching, and instead, they saw something. What is it that they saw? They saw that just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel to preach to the Jews, Paul was also entrusted with the very same gospel to preach to the Gentiles.

This implies something we don’t know about. Just when had Peter been called to preach to the Jews? Does this go back to Peter’s readmission to the apostles when Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs… feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17)? Or could it go back to when Jesus gave the ministry of the keys to the Church (John 20:22-23)? Or did Peter have a special vision and commissioning like the one Paul had on the road to Damascus? Could this be what Paul means when he singles out Peter in 1 Corinthians 15:5 as having seen the risen Jesus? We are not told, but thoughtful students of the Bible could support and defend any of these as possible.

A division of the work here is broad and general: One to the Jews, the other to the Gentiles. But Peter did not exclude himself from work among the Gentiles ( he had preached to Cornelius and other Gentiles in Caesarea) and Paul did not exclude himself from preaching to the Jews (he always began in the synagogues). But for the most part, they recognized that Peter would be working with one group, and Paul with the other, for as long as the Lord was willing.

Finally, notice that Paul’s answer to the false brothers, the Judaizers, is based entirely on the message they brought. It is in no sense an attack on their names (which are never spoken), or their reputations (which are not sullied), nor their positions in the church (which is never even discussed). A teaching is not true and good because of the quality of the person who says it. It doesn’t matter if that person is good, saintly, famous, powerful, or brilliant, or whether he is humble, hard working, quiet, or well-dressed, or whether he is “perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant” (Song 3:6) or perhaps he reeks of whale vomit (Jonah 2:10). What he says is good and true if what he says is from God alone.

This shows that the apostles, whether Peter, Paul, John, or any of the others, all shared the same call from Christ: To preach the gospel in the world. Peter did not proclaim a superior gospel than the rest, nor did he have a different role than Paul, except that their general fields were different. From our point of view, Paul’s field was massively larger than Peter’s, but Paul acknowledges that their message and ministry were the same. Therefore, in the Scriptures, there is no superiority between Peter and Paul or any of the others. And no one has any Scriptural basis for saying that Peter was the chief of the apostles, because this, as Luther plainly says, “is a brazen lie.”

To this point, we offer a few summary points from our Lutheran Confessions, not spoken in anger or hatred or rebellion, but as a matter of Scriptural fact and in love.

1, The Pope is not by divine right above any other pastor or bishop of the church. In Luke 22:24-27, Christ expressly forbids lordship among the apostles.

2, Christ sent out his disciples as equals, without discrimination, when he said: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

3, In the passage before us (Galatians 2:6-7), Paul plainly asserts that he was neither ordained nor confirmed by Peter, nor does he acknowledge Peter as one from whom confirmation should be sought. His calling did not depend on Peter at all.

4, In 1 Corinthians 3:4-8 Paul places ministers on an equality and teaches that the church is above the ministers. He also says: “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas” (1 Cornthians 3:21-22). That is to say that neither Paul nor the other ministers should assume lordship or authority over the church, nor burden the church with traditions, nor let anybody’s authority count for more than the Word of God, nor set the authority of Cephas (Peter) over against the authority of the other apostles.

To this, we might also demonstrate that in the early days of the church, when one minister was arrested and on his way to his death, he wrote to another pastor in the area—not to the Bishop of Rome—to help in choosing a replacement for himself. “Polycarp,” writes Ignatius, “most blessed of God, you should summon a godly council and choose someone dear to you and who is energetic, who can be called God’s courrier. Appoint him to go to Syria…” (Ignatius to Polycarp 7:2).

On the other hand, the offices of pastor and teacher, just as that of apostle and prophet, are divinely instituted: the ministry of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:8). No one can become a servant of the word (a pastor) in any other way than through an external, legitimate call. The direct call from Christ is demonstrated in the New Testament, but the indirect call (through the church as the calling body) is traced back to God, for “the Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it” (Psalm 68:11). It has God’s promise: “The body of elders laid their hands on you, therefore watch your life and your doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:14,16). This right to call its own pastors was already used by the church in the days of the apostles and continues today.

Pray for your pastor and for his faithfulness. Do not be jealous of his authority or his position, for he is the servant of the church, and he gives up much to serve the church. Pray that God would strengthen him, give him courage, understanding, compassion, insight, and the desire to continue under the guidance of Christ our Good Shepherd.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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