Chapter 2

2:2: Paul had gone up to Jerusalem because of a revelation. He communicated his message to those who were of reputation, which were likely the Apostles and Elders, at the very least James, Peter and John. Paul did so in private as not to cause drama or strife and did so for the purpose of making sure there was no disunity in the Gospel being preached.

2:3: Being a Greek, Titus was uncircumcised. Paul used Titus as an example for the fact that he had not changed his message or the gospel he was preaching regardless of those around him, as not even Titus was pressured or compelled to be circumcised.

2:4: This group of people were "false brothers", meaning they were not Christians nor brothers in Christ at all. They had spied on Paul's meeting with "those of reputation" that they might once again put them under a yoke of slavery to the ceremonial law of God.

2:5: They did not submit to these "false brothers" nor their false teachings for even a moment. If they had, it would have been compromising of the truth of the gospel, and they would be found "preaching another gospel" (Galatians 1:8). Paul is using his disputing of the arguments of the false brothers here as an example to the Galatians of the truth.

2:6: Those who were of "high reputation", although being no different to Paul, for God shows no partiality, "contributed nothing" to Paul in the sense that they had no other word to add on to or change about Paul's message. Paul's message was found pure and spotless, confirmed by those in high reputation as not the message of Paul but as "the message of God".

2:7-9: Those who were of high reputation did not only have nothing poor to say about Paul's message, but even joined him in fellowship and agreement, and confirmed his apostleship and authority to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, which was given Him by God, just as the apostleship to the Jews had been given to Peter, by the same God. They recognized that this grace and wisdom had been given to Paul by God, and the "pillars" of the Church, being James, Peter, and John, welcomed him as a co-worker for Christ.

2:10: It appears that that "the pillars of the Church" were here asking Paul to support and remember the poor in Jerusalem, regardless of his apostleship being focused on the Gentiles.

2:11: Although Peter was not preaching another gospel, he was hypocritically living out a "different gospel" and thus Paul opposed him to his face.

2:12: Before certain people came, Peter ate freely with the Gentiles, who did not observe Jewish food laws. Peter was unified to the Gentile believers with Christ, but when these men came, sent from James, Peter started to be hypocritical and "shrink back" from sitting and dining and being unified with the Gentiles and started to please man rather than God.

2:13: Peter was a pillar and because of his hypocritical, man pleasing behavior, some of the other Jewish believers, even Barnabas, was "carried away" by his hypocrisy and "shrunk back" along side him.

2:14: Paul, seeing their hypocritical behavior in the concealing of the truth of the gospel, publicly spoke to Peter before everyone and pointed out his behavior of eating like a Gentile and then compelling the Gentiles to eat like Jews. Peter started partaking in meals and unity with the Gentile believers but hypocritically shrunk back into rituals and was essentially leading the Gentiles to eat like Jews.

2:15: To the Jews, the Gentiles were by nature "sinners" because they didn't follow the law.

2:16: Man is forensically or "positionally" righteous before God, being justified not by works of the law nor by good works but by faith alone in Christ alone. Even those "under the law", being the Jewish believers, believed in Christ Jesus because no flesh will ever be justified by works of the law.

2:20: Just as Christ was dead and then alive, so are we dead to ourselves and made alive in and to Christ. We are dead to our own passions and desires and lusts and are to serve Him as our master. It is not merely that we are still alive to ourselves and only dead to our desires but we are fully dead to both self and dead to our lusts. The life we now live we live for Christ and we walk in the Spirit of Christ. We live by faith in Christ who first loved us and gave Himself up for us to save us from this present evil age.

2:21: The law has no power to make any one man righteous. It is by grace alone that any man is saved, not according to the works of the law.