NOTES for Гал 2:1-10
As we can see, Paul did consult with the other apostles about his ministry (vv. 1-2). Judging by the fact that the question concerned circumcision, Paul did bring it before the Church so that it would not bring splits and divisions into the churches (vv. 3-5). But for Paul himself this was not so much permission to preach what he preached about religion in general and circumcision in particular, as it was testimony from the Church itself, testimony that for him was as binding as any other testimony. He does not wait for any confirmation from people of the spiritual authenticity of his ministry, even if those people are the apostles themselves (v. 6). Yet the apostles, as we can see, confirmed the authenticity of Paul's ministry (vv. 7-10).
Here the apostle reveals to us a very important principle of spiritual life and spiritual ministry: its uniqueness and unrepeatability. That is why evaluating someone else's ministry is far from simple. Every revelation is always unrepeatable and fully understandable only to the one for whom it is intended. To evaluate its authenticity, one must be able to see another person's revelation through the eyes of the one to whom it was given, and that is far from easy. It is another matter when a person lives not by his own revelation but by other people's ideas and opinions, while it seems to him that those opinions are his own. There everything is much more definite. That is why Paul assesses rather sharply the attempts of the Galatian Christians to follow preachers who rely not on the experience of revelation but on their own human constructions. One must not hinder a person from doing God's work. But one can and must warn him when he tries to replace God's work with human works.