Galatians 2
Big idea: Two scenes, and the second is one of the most uncomfortable in the New Testament: Paul says he rebuked Peter publicly, and names Barnabas among those who went along with him. What makes it argument rather than gossip is where it lands — the confrontation runs straight into the letter's thesis without a break, so that by the time you notice the quotation marks have closed, you are reading doctrine.
Chapter 2 states the thesis — justified by faith, not by works of the law. Chapter 3 argues it, first from their own experience and then from Abraham.
2:1–10 — Not even Titus was compelled
The Jerusalem meeting, told with a test case at its centre. Titus is a Greek and was not required to be circumcised — a precedent, not a courtesy — and Paul reports the outcome as recognition rather than permission: nothing was added to his message. His treatment of the leaders is deliberately double: he calls them pillars and simultaneously refuses to be impressed.
1 Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2 I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, 5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. 6 But from those who were reputed to be important—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, 7 but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised— 8 for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles— 9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.
2:11–21 — I have been crucified with Christ
Peter had been eating with Gentiles and stopped when a delegation arrived, and Paul's charge is not that he changed his mind but that he did not — he withdrew out of fear while still believing otherwise, which is why the word used is HYPOCRISY. Then the rebuke turns into the thesis, and the transition is seamless enough that translators disagree about where the quotation ends.
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? 15 “We, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. 19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).