+II. Seen in a prompt and stern refusal to compromise principle+ (vers. 3-5).--The object of Paul's visit to Jerusalem was to discuss a vital principle of the Gospel--the right of the Gentiles to the privileges of the Gospel without observing the works of the Jewish law. A misunderstanding at that critical moment might have imperilled the liberty of the Gospel. The presence of Barnabas and Titus was significant--the one a pure Jew, a man of gentle disposition and generous impulse; and the other a Gentile convert, representing the world of the uncircumcised. It is to the credit of the Church leaders at Jerusalem that, with their strong Jewish prejudices, they admitted that the legal rite of circumcision must not be imposed on Gentile converts. They were so convinced that this was the will of God, and that He had already sanctioned this an essential feature of the Gospel, that they dared do no other. An attempt was made, not by the apostles, but by certain "false brethren," to insist that Titus should be circumcised; but this was promptly and stoutly opposed. A concession on this point would have been fatal to the universality of the Gospel--the whole Gentile world would have been trammelled with the bondage of legal ceremonies. It was then that the great battle of Christian liberty was fought and won. The victory was another testimony of the validity and power of the Divine commission with which Paul was entrusted.
+III. Seen in the inability of the wisest leaders to add anything to the Divine authority.+--"But of these who seemed to be somewhat . . . in conference added nothing to me" (ver. 6). When Paul was called to the apostleship he "conferred not with flesh and blood"; now he affirms that flesh and blood did not confer anything on him. In conference and debate with the chiefs of the Church he showed himself their equal, and on the great essentials of the Gospel he was in perfect agreement with them. Though Paul is too modest to say it, so far from his learning anything from them, they were more likely to learn something from him, especially as to the wider scope of the Gospel. "In doctrine Paul holds the primacy in the band of the apostles. While all were inspired by the Spirit of Christ, the Gentile apostle was in many ways a more richly furnished man than any of the rest. The Paulinism of Peter's first epistle goes to show that the debt was on the other side. Their earlier privileges and priceless store of recollections of all that Jesus did and taught were matched on Paul's side by a penetrating logic, a breadth and force of intellect applied to the facts of revelation, and a burning intensity of spirit which in their combination was unique. The Pauline teaching, as it appears in the New Testament, bears in the highest degree the marks of original genius, the stamp of a mind whose inspiration is its own" (_Findlay_).