NOTES for Gal 2:7-14

It is interesting how specifically the Lord divides responsibilities, callings, and duties in the Church. Paul is called not simply to preach the Gospel, but to preach it to the Gentiles. The Lord distinguishes the particular grace of apostleship among the circumcised from that among the uncircumcised. These might seem like purely technical details: here we speak about this but not that, and there the reverse... Perhaps this reduction of the work to technical matters is precisely what the Lord does not want. The Apostle Paul says that Peter behaved inconsistently, first abandoning observance of Jewish rites and then beginning to “hide.” In a particular situation, one probably needs to decide clearly which system one lives within and not try to conform to two at once. The division of callings is important for this, among other reasons.