In this passage, the apostle Paul is continuing to defend the authenticity of the gospel and his authority as an apostle. The church in Galatia was under attack from false teachers inside the church. These false teachers were most likely bonified members of the church who walked and talked like brothers and sisters in Christ. But they were actually imposters who were challenging the authenticity of Paul’s gospel as well as his authority as an apostle. They could not fathom the freedom that Paul proclaimed, and they were working overtime to put the church in the chains of slavery once again.
They just could not fathom how God’s people could be holy if they were not circumcised and practicing every little jot and tiddle of the Mosaic Law; how dare the apostle Paul proclaim a salvation that was free from the Mosaic Law? The church was going to be full of filthy, stinky, uncircumcised lawbreakers if someone did not do something about this quote un quote second rate apostle with his second hand gospel (this is how Paul’s enemies were thinking).
One commentator helpfully notes that, “If Paul had failed to defend his gospel for the Gentiles, then Christians would still have to follow the law of Moses down to the last detail. Our salvation would depend on such things as being circumcised, keeping the Old Testament dietary laws, and following the more obscure regulations in Leviticus. The church would be imprisoned within the Jewish culture.”2
We must remember – as this same commentator goes on to say – that, “Galatians is partly… about turning a cultural distinctive into a theological necessity. But the deeper issue is the perpetual danger of adding our requirements to the only thing God requires for salvation, which is faith in Jesus Christ.”3
Paul is literally fighting to keep believers out of the prison cell of secondary issues because he knows that true freedom is found in the main thing of the gospel. By attempting to add secondary issues to the gospel, Paul’s enemies were stripping the gospel of the freedom it promises.
It is not uncommon for the church today to make secondary issues into main gospel issues. Baptists have been known for the slogan, “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t cuss, don’t dance, don’t chew, and don’t date girls who do” as though not doing these things will make you into a super-saved Christian while you gossip, complain, slander, cause disunity, lust for whatever you do not have, and get fatter while practicing gluttony at potlucks.
It is an absolute shock to me, how often I engage in conversations with professing believers who will adamantly hold to the list of “don’ts” that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture, while openly disobeying the very clear commands I have just listed.
I do not understand why this phenomenon exists in the church, I have tried to figure it out for 24 years of following Jesus, but I honestly have no idea why these kinds of teachings exist… other than to say that there must be – or must have been historically – a ton of teachers in the western church who seriously enjoyed putting people in chains with secondary issues instead of setting people free with the message of the gospel.
Think about it… the message of Christianity, in the West especially, has sounded something like this, “Come to Jesus and he will set you free from the penalty, presence, and power of your sin… and once you get in (well actually, part of the way you get in), is to get you a new set of chains (religious practices) in the form of a new set of laws that you must fight to keep that the Bible does not clearly command… but if you keep these new chains (obscure or even nonexistent Bible teachings) all nice and shiny and clean and wrapped around your heart and proudly displayed on your chest, then and only then will anyone believe (and only then can you be assured) that you are truly saved (so long as you do not screw things up and forfeit your salvation by going back to practicing those secondary things and then find yourself in need of getting saved all over again)… so get to work now… get them chains all wrapped around you nice and tight like… enjoy the new slavery (I mean freedom) that was purchased for you at the cross of Calvary… never mind your tendency to still sin in ways that are clearly outlined in Scripture (get these new secondary chains in place and the rest will fall into place)… stay focused on earning God’s attention (I mean, pleasing the God who set you free to a new slavery) by practicing the secondary (or non-existent… never mind that) list of do’s and don’ts to prove that you fit in. Heaven is going to be so much fun… Aren’t you glad you are not going to hell; aren’t you happy for your new set of chains?!” Doesn’t this message sound all too familiar?
Now look at our text for today…
1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in – who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery – 5to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) – those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8(for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
I believe that if the apostle Paul were here today, we would receive a similar letter from him, and he would be opposed by similar teachers in the church today who want to add extrabiblical things to the gospel. I also believe that Paul would fight for the freedom we have in Christ in the same way he did for the Galatians. I also believe that we should be fighting for the same freedom today. The question is, “How do we do this? How do we fight for spiritual freedom?”
#1: WE MUST REVIEW THE GOSPEL WITH OTHER BELIEVERS (VV. 1 – 2)
The apostle Paul fought to ensure that he was not running in vain, by meeting with other believers to simply review the gospel with them. In verses 1 – 2, he says that 1…after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
Paul did not want to be guilty of running in vain with a false gospel. He deeply believed the explicit implications of the gospel; namely that the law never promised freedom, it was only ever meant to make us aware of our sin, to give us clear restrictions against sin, and to point us to Jesus as the crucified, risen, and returning Savior who is victorious over Satan, Sin, and Death. In Christ alone my hope is found, he is my light, my strength, my song (this is the song that would have been on Paul’s lips as he reviewed the gospel with other believers).
Paul did not use his profession of faith as an excuse to separate from other believers and he certainly did not use it to become some fringe, Lone Ranger Christian, who only graces the doors of church fellowship a couple times per year. For Paul, the gospel was not merely the beginning point of salvation, it was the main meat of spiritual nutrition; all the practical commands of Scripture are founded and heavily seasoned with the main salt and pepper of the gospel.
Even the Ten Commandments (centuries before this letter to the Galatians) began with “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exod. 20:2) in other words, “I am the God who saved you and set you free” now go and live like the blood bought children you really are.
The emphasis of Scripture is not and has never been, the Law. The emphasis is and has always been the God who saves us and sets us free from slavery. It should not surprise us that there are counterfeit gospels in our midst because the enemy has always wanted to detour us from Jesus who is our one and only true freedom fighter. This is what Paul is fighting to preserve, which leads us to the second way we fight for the freedom that the gospel gives us.
#2: WE MUST PRESERVE THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL (VV. 3 – 5)
Jesus said that he is the way the truth and the life and that no one could come to the Father except through faith in Christ alone (Jn. 14:6). He also said that by the power of his indwelling Spirit, we would know the truth and the truth would set us free (Jn. 8:32). Truth and freedom have been intertwined since the beginning in the Garden of Eden; it was our enemy, the Serpent, who came to deceive Adam and Eve as a liar and the father of all lies (Jn. 8:44) when he deceived them into questioning the truth of what God had spoken to them regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3). Bottom line, the truth of the gospel has been under attack since the very beginning.
Paul is fighting to preserve the truth of the gospel, and one of the main ways he fought for this was by not submitting to false brothers who demanded that he add secondary issues to the primacy of the gospel. Paul would not submit to false brothers nor their false gospel because he was fighting to preserve the truth of the true gospel.
This is why he says in verses 3 – 5 that, 3…even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in – who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery – 5to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
Secondary issues – obscure issues such as the moralistic ones I mentioned at the beginning of this message, and even other ones such as political affiliation, social justice issues, baptism practices, missionary protocols, the use of spiritual gifts, denominational affiliations, etc. – all these things and more, can become tools for a new kind of slavery that gets dressed up in the lipstick of religious freedom.
And let us not forget that the people who were introducing false elements to the gospel were people whom Paul calls “false brothers”. Every commentator I read pointed to the underlying pain of realizing that these false teachers were once regarded as brothers in Christ but were soon found out to be imposters, spies who snuck in under the radar. There is no getting around the feelings of betrayal and deception and abandonment that accompanies a once regarded brother or sister who has now become a false teacher.
To these kinds of people, we do not offer the right hand of fellowship – we do not submit to them even for a moment because to do so would be to reject the truth of the gospel that sets us free in the finished work of Christ at the cross, and the empty tomb, in light of his promised return.
While we do not submit to false brothers and sisters – we DO NOT offer them the right hand of fellowship – we do need to give the right hand of fellowship to those who teach the truth of the gospel but practice their religious convictions differently than we do.
#3: WE MUST EXTEND THE RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP (VV. 6 – 10)
We must give the right hand of fellowship to those who are faithful to the message of the gospel but practice their religion differently than we do. There is nothing wrong with smoking, drinking, cussing, dancing, playing cards, chewing tobacco, wearing dresses above the knees, putting on makeup, tattoos, driving Ford pickups, riding foreign motorcycles, or affiliating with one political party or another. The opposite of any of those is also not bad.
What matters here is how you practice your spiritual freedom. Later in this letter, Paul will argue for the right use of moral freedom. In summary though, we ought not to make our secondary convictions into primary theological positions; we should instead fight to give the right hand of fellowship to those who practice their religious convictions differently than we do.
The way Paul did this was by uniting with other faithful believers despite their diversity of practice; he did not attempt to force them to abide by his secondary convictions and he did not shame them for being different than he was.
On the contrary he seems to celebrate the diversity he saw in the body of Christ when he says in verses 6 – 10 that, 6…those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) – those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8(for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
Unity amidst diversity is something that adorns the gospel! This is one of the things that I have had to work hard to learn. I am a passionate guy, and it is hard for me to not make mountains out of molehills and see everyone different than me as an enemy. Being a part of two different denominations where there is a variety of practices regarding secondary issues has been very hard at times and also very helpful at other times.
I am often viewed as the renegade pastor who leads a rough around the edges church therefore, we are sometimes suspected of being a very liberal church; that is until some of my brothers who pastor those other churches get to know us and they find that we are not only passionate about the gospel but we are also overjoyed that we are free of the traditional secondary trappings of most Baptist churches.
One of the most obvious ways we can extend the right hand of fellowship to other faithful gospel believing churches is through our partnership in remembering the poor (both physically and spiritually).
I love the fact that not only are we running arm and arm with other churches that are radically different than us but if you look around this room, we are a radically diverse church family; the gospel for every tribe, tongue, and nation is what we have fought for and will continue to fight for because it is the glue that holds us together!
CONCLUSION…
So, there you have it! In conclusion, fighting for our freedom in the gospel is one of the most important things we can be about as a church family. The way we fight for freedom – the way we protect ourselves from getting chained into a new kind of slavery to secondary issues – is by reviewing the gospel with other believers, preserving the truth of the gospel by not giving into the demands of false teachers, and extending the right hand of fellowship to other faithful believers who are radically different than us.
My prayer is that we would always be known as a church family who fights for the freedom given to us in the message of the gospel of the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of heaven! – Amen?
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Philip, Graham, Ryken, Galatians, Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2005), 50.
3 Ibid.