Bible Passage:Gal 1:18-19
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.
* * *
Paul grants that he was with the Apostles, but not with all the Apostles However, he declares that he went to Jerusalem to them of his own accord, not by command; not to learn anything of them, but to see Peter. All his words are so framed that they prove his Gospel not to be of man. Indeed, he admits that he had seen Peter, and James the brother of our Lord, but none of the other Apostles besides these two, and that he learned nothing of them. The whole effect then of this matter lies in the words "to see." I went, he says, to see Peter and not to learn of him. Therefore neither is Peter my master, nor yet James. But why does Paul repeat this so often, that he learned not his Gospel of men, nor of the Apostles themselves? His purpose is this, to persuade the churches of Galatia, which were now led away by the false apostles, and to put them out of all doubt that his Gospel was the true Word of God. For his ministry was here in great danger, and in all the churches likewise, which had used him as their chief pastor and teacher. Here Paul had a weighty matter in hand; namely, that all the churches in Galatia might be kept in sound doctrine. For if the pure Word of God is once taken away, there remains no consolation, no life, no salvation. His purpose is therefore to show by this history that he received his Gospel from no man; again, that he had preached for a certain time, both in Damascus and Arabia, by revelation from God, before he had seen any of the Apostles, even the selfsame Gospel that the Apostles had preached.
Send forth Thy heralds, Lord, to call
The thoughtless young, the hardened old,
A scattered, homeless flock, till all
Be gathered to Thy peaceful fold.
--
Cuda.
aka Pastor Robin Fish
Lutheran to the core -- and just a little beyond.
Information Copyright © 2007-2009 Robin Fish. All rights reserved.
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