I think we all have issues with leadership from time to time. I was horrified of officers when I was in the military. Okay, maybe not horrified but suspicious of their motives and reasoning. I had a complete mistrust of leaders.
A lot of issues people have with leadership come from miscommunication. Other problems occur with politics in leadership, with differing governing principles, and with the ethics of a leader. There are plenty of other areas I could think up but then this would be a leadership lesson and miss dealing with the issue Paul was beginning to have with some of the early church leaders.
Fourteen years had passed since Paul had gone to meet with the leadership in Jerusalem. This time, Paul makes another more private journey. Paul was having a problem with ministers who were emphasizing the need for Gentile believers to become more “Jewish” in their faith. Paul wanted to make sure that the gospel message he had presented for all those years was still kosher. Paul makes this journey with Barnabas and Titus, both of whom shared in spreading the same message as Paul.
Can you imagine teaching for fourteen years and then finding out that your lessons were wrong? How quickly would people lose respect for you? How effective would you be in the future? This was the driving issue in Paul’s inquiry.
Paul taught the freedom given by Christ not the restrictive practices of Jewish customs. One such custom dealt with circumcision. Paul taught that physical appearance did not make a person a Christian. A follower of Christ is determined by the work of the Holy Spirit in and through each individual. Titus, who was not circumcised, was not asked to be by the leaders of the church even though he was undoubtedly Greek.
Paul’s fight against false doctrine was upheld by the leadership in Jerusalem. Paul’s years of hard work had not been in vain. In addition, they did not add anything to Paul’s message. They came to the conclusion that Paul’s apostolic ministry to the Gentiles (apostolic in the sense of bringing the gospel to new places) was ordained by God and confirmed by the work of the Holy Spirit. Peter had such an apostolic ministry but he was steered towards the scattered Jewish settlements outside of Israel.
The Holy Spirit follows the unadulterated gospel with signs and wonders. For any minister, this should be a measure of their effectiveness. If I am to be honest with myself as a minister, I should make a practice of assessing my ministry for God with God’s plan for ministry. Am I seeing the work of the Holy Spirit?
James, Peter, and John extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, and they agreed to the work being done among the Gentiles. Their only request was for Paul to always remember the poor. Paul was quite pleased with this.
With this all said, the next passage deals with how Paul confronts Peter (I will deal with that in the next post). Paul says all of this to the Galatians to emphasize the truth he had conveyed to them. Paul was setting up his argument against Peter and others who acted out of selfish need rather for God. We will see that Peter has an ethical dilemma with his message.
Paul understood better than anyone the need to adapt to culture and show how the culture could adopt to the Christian faith. One does not have to add on new or foreign cultural practices or concepts. That is too much pressure on people who are new to the faith. The Holy Spirit is very capable of leading people to the proper lifestyle changes. Peter, however, seems to forget this even though he had experienced it first hand as the first recorded minister to preach the gospel to a Gentile household (Acts 11). Peter seems to get a little carried away with his apostolic position among the Jews.
- Have you ever been carried away about how your faith practices may be better than someone else’s?
- Have you ever examined yourself to make sure you were in tune with God’s message and with the Holy Spirit?
- Have you ever been in Paul’s shoes and you needed clarification from leadership? How did you feel? What was the result?
1 comment:
I like this--about teaching false doctrines. I have the Sunday school lesson on May 30. It's on Jude, another of those books that one doesn't preach on. I may just tackle it and talk about cults!!
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