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Galatians 2:3
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Defending the Gospel

1 Then after fourteen years aI went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.  
2 And I went up1 by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but aprivately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means bI might run, or had run, in vain.  
3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
4 And this occurred because of afalse brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our bliberty which we have in Christ Jesus, cthat they might bring us into bondage),  
5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that athe truth of the gospel might continue with you.  
6 But from those awho seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; bGod shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something cadded nothing to me.  
7 But on the contrary, awhen they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised bhad been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter  
8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the acircumcised balso cworked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),  
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
<< Galatians 2:2   Galatians 2:4 >>


Galatians 2:3

But—So far were they from regarding me as running in vain, that "not even Titus who was with me, who was a Greek (and therefore uncircumcised), was compelled to be circumcised." So the Greek should be translated. The "false brethren," Galatians 2:4 ("certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed," Acts 15:5), demanded his circumcision. The apostles, however, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas (Galatians 2:5), did not compel or insist on his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles and admitted his independence as an apostle: the point he desires to set forth to the Galatians. Timothy, on the other hand, as being a proselyte of the gate, and son of a Jewess (Acts 16:1), he circumcised (Acts 16:3). Christianity did not interfere with Jewish usages, regarded merely as social ordinances, though no longer having their religious significance, in the case of Jews and proselytes, while the Jewish polity and temple still stood; after the overthrow of the latter, those usages naturally ceased. To have insisted on Jewish usages for Gentile converts, would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity. To have rudely violated them at first in the case of Jews, would have been inconsistent with that charity which (in matters indifferent) is made all things to all men, that by all means it may win some (I Corinthians 9:22; compare Romans 14:1-7, Romans 14:13-23). Paul brought Titus about with him as a living example of the power of the Gospel upon the uncircumcised heathen.




Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Galatians 2:3:

Acts 15:4
Acts 16:3
Galatians 2:1

 

<< Galatians 2:2   Galatians 2:4 >>

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