Aesop (he of the fable fame) once said, “Every truth has two sides. it is as well to look at both before we commit ourselves to either.” This idea of two sides to every story usually comes with the supposition that one side is right and the other is wrong…more recently though while researching this idea, it is becoming more prevalent to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle of both stories.
It is a little different with Paul’s letters because we are indeed only getting one side of the story. The other side, which we do not hear, is most often what prompted Paul to write the letter to begin with. In other words, we don’t hear about the actual situation or issue…we only hear about Paul’s response to it. So many times theologians have to sift through what Paul wrote in order to discern what the issue on the other side was.
There is a clear example of this in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 which says, “10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all [d]speak the same thing, and that there be no [e]divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are [f]contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul”?”
Pretty clear what the issue is here, isn’t it? When Paul tells them to speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among them, it seems obvious that they were not saying the same things and that there were divisions among them in terms of leadership…people were falling into different camps and following one leader over against another.
In the two verses I want to look at today, it is much the same thing. What was going on in Galatia that led to Paul writing this?
Galatians 1:11-12 say, “11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
What he is saying in these two verses is that the gospel which he had given to the Galatians was not something that had a human origin…not man-made or man-generated. it is not influenced by human consideration and has no human standard with it. Paul’s gospel is not of, by, or through men.
The gospel was not received nor taught but came about a different way, through revelation. He says that he is an independent witness to the gospel and did not come about through any instruction from any of the apostles.
The question is why Paul has to say this. What was going on with the Galatians?
They evidently had developed doubts as to whether Paul was actually a legit apostle. No doubt the Jewish false teachers were sowing these seeds in them. He must be a step below the other apostles in authority…he must have learned it from them somehow or he heard about Jesus elsewhere and now is trying to assert spiritual authority which he did not have. That’s the key…Paul did not have the spiritual authority to teach or command them ANYTHING in the name of God because he got his gospel from somewhere else.
That is what Paul is fighting back against here, the idea that he was not truly an apostle. And for the rest of this chapter and the next, Paul will recount for the Galatians his spiritual journey that will show them exactly how he is an apostle like the others in Jerusalem.
Get ready for another episode of “Biography” on A&E.
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