Church History: Date: A.D. 53–57
The career of the apostle for the next few months is not given in detail, but the whole is condensed into this brief statement:
“He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece.” Several events transpired during this interval of time which was hurriedly passed over. Knowledge of this is accessible through epistles written at the time, and which we shall briefly consider.
When Paul and Barnabas were in Jerusalem on the mission from the Church in Antioch, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, it was formally agreed, among the apostles then present, that Peter, James, and John should labor chiefly among the Jews, and Paul and Barnabas among the Gentiles. It was stipulated, however, that the latter should assist in providing for the poor in Judea. "This," says Paul, "I was also planning to do" (Galatians 2:6-10). In accordance with this agreement, we find that he was now urging a general collection in the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia for this purpose (2Corinthians 1:1 and 2Corinthians 8:1-15). The Churches in Achaia, indeed, were ready for the contribution a whole year before this, and Paul had written to them in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "Upon the first day of the week, let each of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no collections when I come" (1Corinthians 16:2; 2Corinthians 9:1-2). For prudential considerations, such as prompted him so often to labor without remuneration from the Churches, he was not willing to be himself the bearer of this gift, although the Churches in Macedonia had entreated him to do so (2Corinthians 8:4). He at first, indeed, had not fully intended to go to Jerusalem in connection with it, but had said to the Churches, "Whomsoever you will approve by letters, them will I send to take your gift to Jerusalem; and if it be proper that I should go also, they shall go with me" (1Corinthians 16:3-4). The importance of the mission, however, grew more momentous as time advanced, so that he resolved to go himself, and the enterprise became a subject of most absorbing interest.
The circumstance which led to this result was the increasing alienation between the Jews and the Gentiles within the Church. The decree of the apostles and inspired brethren in Jerusalem, though it had given comfort to the Church in Antioch, where the controversy first became rife (Acts 15:30-35), and had done good everywhere that it was carried (Acts 16:4-5), had not succeeded in entirely quelling the pride and arrogance of the Judaizing teachers. They had persisted in their schismatical efforts, until there was not a wide-spread disaffection between the parties, threatening to render the whole Church into two hostile bodies. By this influence the Churches in Galatia had become almost entirely alienated from Paul, for whom they once would have been willing to pluck out their own eyes, and were rapidly led back under bondage to the law of Moses (compare Galatians 1:6; 4:15, 10-21; 5:1). The Church in Rome, at the opposite extremity of the territory which had been evangelized, was also disturbed by factions, the Jews insisting that justification was by works of law, and that the distinctions of meats and holy days should be perpetuated (Romans 3:1-5:21; 14:1-23). Such danger to the cause could but be to Paul a source of inexpressible anxiety; and while it was imminent he concentrated all his energies to its aversions.
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