THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Which we have in Christ Jesus” that Paul did not yield the point.. Tuesday, April 16 . Gal. 2 : 6 . Paul speaks o f the leaders at Jerusalem as “those who Were reputed to be some what.” It is probable from verse 9 that he had in mind James, Peter (Cephas), and John. He does not speak of them as Apos tles, but simply as “those who were reputed to be somewhat,” and furthermore, he adds, “Whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter • to me.” Apostles and common Christians are alike to God and they should be to us. “ God accepteth no man’s per son.” We have but one Master, even Christ, and one Teacher, and “all we are brethren” (Matt. 23:8, 10)jr Paul would not have them think for a moment that he set one Christian, even a leading Apostle, above another. How far the church is today from this position that Paul held, and that God holds! How we do accept the persons o f men if they' be great teach ers or leaders in any way. What sticklers some o f us are that people should call us “Doctor” and that they should not forget to put D. D. after our' names. These “who were o f repute” “ imparted nothing (not even'one thing)” to Paul. All they had to tell, he knew before. So far from his learning his gospel from them they added nothing to the gospel he already preached, much less made any changes in the gospel he had now been preaching for fourteen years. As he had received the gospel which he had been preaching these fourteen years by direct revelation from Jesus Christ (ch. 1 : 12 ), o f course, no man could add to it. Wednesday, April 17 . Gal. 2 : 7 - 10 . So far from adding anything to Paul’s gospel, James and Cephas and John gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand o f fellowship, that they should go unto the Gentiles, while James and Cephas and John themselves went into the circumcision, i. e., the Jews. If Peter ever went to Rome and became Bishop o f the Gentile church there, as the Roman Catholic Church
circumcised. To have yielded under such circumstances would have been to have sac rificed a principle and to . have sacrificed Gentile liberty, so while Paul was perfectly willing to make a concession in the case of Timothy, where there was no question of principle raised, yet to these false brethren, who demanded the surrender o f Gentile liberty, Paul “gave place (or yielded) in the way o f subjection, no, not for an hour.” The reason why Paul did not yield was not out o f mere devotion to his own opin ion, but “that (more exactly, in order that) the truth o f the gospel might continue with (or, unto)” the Gentile believers. The way Paul puts it, “ in order that the truth o f the gospel might continue unto you” is as if he said: “We defended for your sakes the truth o f the gospel and your liberties which you are now throwing away.” These false brethren who demanded the circum cision o f Titus had been brought in in an •underhanded way, and came in in this underhanded way “to spy out” the “lib erty which” believers “have in Christ” (cf. ch. 6:15; 5:18), “ in order that they might bring” believers “ into bondage.” In other words, they were trying to do at that time in Jerusalem what the Judaizers who had come to Galatia were now attempting to do in Galatia, they were watching for any thing that thejr could use as a weapon against the doctrine of Christian liberty in respect to the Mosaic law, in order that they might force upon others the bondage which they themselves endured. If Paul had yielded the point regarding the circum cision o f Titus they would have at once seized upon that concession as a proof that Paul himself deemed circumcision neces sary, or at least that he practiced circum cision when he was under the eye o f the Apostles at Jerusalem. This would have been a mighty weapon for evil in the hands o f the Judaizers. How ready legalists are to pervert any one’s words or acts into a proof o f their own position we have abun dantly illustrated in our day. It was “ because o f the false brethren privily brought in . . . to spy out our liberty
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