Galatians Journal: Chapter 2, verse 6

Galatians 2:6 “As for those who seemed to be important-- whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance-- those men added nothing to my message.”

“those who seemed to be important” It seems at first blush that Paul is belittling the authority of the church leaders at Jerusalem. While it is quite possible that Paul is using biting criticism or sarcasm as he regularly did in his letters, it is out of character for him to express arrogance or to speak against God’s established authorities. It is even out of character for this chapter of scripture; Paul's whole reason for traveling to Jerusalem in the first place is he had staked his entire vision and mission on the judgment of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem. If he respected them enough to give them the final word regarding whether he had “run [his] race in vain” (see v. 2), why would he be speaking so apparently callously here? Perhaps he is not directing his comments here to Peter and James. In v. 2 he spoke of those who “seemed to be leaders.” Here, it is a similar reference “those who seemed to be important,” Acts 15:5 references a group of former Pharisees who argue for the Jewish rules and traditions as requirements for salvation, to be a "proper Christian." This is followed by “much discussion.” (Acts 15:7). In the end, however, the leaders vindicate Paul, as they “added nothing to [Paul’s] message.” It would therefore appear that Paul is addressing the prominent Pharisee/Judiazers who held a lot of influence in the Jerusalem church community, and at the Acts 15 Counsel. In light of the underlying theme of ethnicity being the issue in the Galatian church, the parenthetical comment inserted in the middle of v. 6 makes more sense – what they WERE (as in whether they were Jews, Greeks, or whatever ethnic group -- in my community we would be arguing over African American versus Caucasian versus Hispanic, or traditional mainline Protestant worship style versus the newer interdenominational "praise band" worship style) -- this all makes no difference, for God doesn’t judge by mere outer appearances. Of course, considering Acts 23:5, where Paul retracts his rebuke of the High Priest when he was before the Sanhedrin, simply because of the High Priest’s position, Paul never would have spoken so blithely of the leaders in authority. This doesn’t stop him from being critical when he feels they’re in the wrong (see later in chap. 2, regarding Peter). But I don’t think this is aimed at the church elders, but at those who were pushing those same elders to adopt this heresy and practice institutional racism.