ガラテヤの信徒への手紙2:7-10
また、彼らはわたしに与えられた恵みを認め、ヤコブとケファとヨハネ、つまり柱と目されるおもだった人たちは、わたしとバルナバに一致のしるしとして右手を差し出しました。それで、わたしたちは異邦人へ、彼らは割礼を受けた人々のところに行くことになったのです。 （ガラテヤ2:9）
「一致のしるしとして右手を差し出しました」というのは、エルサレム教会の指導者であるヤコブとペトロとヨハネが、パウロとバルナバは異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝え、彼ら三人はユダヤ人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えるという任務の分担を承知したということを表しています。
しかし、このような任務の分担は、お互いの管轄を厳密に定めたということではなく、パウロとペトロがそれぞれ果たすべき任務の原則を定めたということでしょう。使徒言行録を読みますと、パウロの伝道の様子が詳しく記されています。パウロが異邦人の町でキリストの福音を宣べ伝えるときには、多くの場合まずユダヤ教の会堂で説教をしました。ユダヤ教の会堂には、ユダヤ人と神を求める異邦人の求道者の両方がいました。そして、ユダヤ教の会堂で拒否されると、パウロは別の場所で説教をしました。コリントの場合はユダヤ教の会堂の隣にあったティティオ・ユストという人の家が伝道の場所でした。エフェソの場合はティラノという人の講堂が伝道の場所でした。フィリピのようにユダヤ教の会堂のなかったところでは、祈りの集まりが行われる場所で説教をしました。パウロの伝道は異邦人の人々をキリストに対する信仰へと導きました。しかし、パウロの説教を聴いて回心した人の中には、コリントのユダヤ教会堂の会堂長クリスポのようなユダヤ人もいました。また、コリントの信徒への手紙一を読みますと、コリント教会の信徒の中には「わたしはケファ（すなわちペトロ）につく」と主張した人もいたそうですから、ペトロの影響力はエルサレム以外の教会にも及んでいたようです。それは、ペトロの影響力が異邦人にも及んでいたことを意味しているのでしょう。
ですから、7節から9節に記されている任務の分担は、パウロとペトロがそれぞれ福音を宣べ伝える主な相手をおおまかに定めたものである、と解釈するのがよいでしょう。それによって、パウロが異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えるということが、エルサレム教会の指導者たちによって承認されたということです。そして、パウロが異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えることが承認されたということは、異邦人の救いの問題については、基本的にパウロの立場が尊重されるべきである、ということを示唆しています。つまり、人はキリストを信じることによって救われるのであって、割礼の儀式を受ける必要はないということです。ところが、エルサレム教会の指導者たちはパウロが異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えるということを承認したにもかかわらず、この時点では「割礼の儀式を受ける必要はないという」点については未だ十分に考えていなかったようです。 （5月21日の説教より）
The word “rival” is sometimes used in various fields such as sports, arts, business, and academic studies. For example, in the women’s figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, South Korea’s KIM Yona and Japan’s ASADA Mao were once seen as rivals. The result was a gold medal for KIM Yona and a silver medal for ASADA Mao. About a month later in the same year, at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy, ASADA Mao won gold and KIM Yona won silver.
Despite its common use, it is difficult to define the meaning of the word “rival.” In the article written by a psychology researcher MUROYAMA Harumi in 1995, she wrote the following about “rival.”
The word “rival” is often used in competitive situations in sports, games and other competitions, or in social settings such as schools and companies. The word is often used to refer to competitors who are competing together for a common task goal. The word can describe a relationship between competitors who are so fierce that they are pulling each other down, but it also often describes a friendly relationship in which competitors engage in friendly competition and recognise each other’s strengths.
That being said, the word “rival” seems to contain both the nuance of a good relationship of friendly rivalry and the nuance of a bad relationship of pulling each other down.
MACHIDA Tatsuki, a men’s figure skater during the 2010s, who now teaches at a university as a sports scientist, and SORITA Kyohei, a pianist who won second prize at the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, have a dialogue on the theme. In the dialogue, Mr. SORITA looks back on the Chopin Competition and says: “At that time, my strongest thought was certainly to play this piece because I wanted to convey how wonderful it is and how much I love this piece. I think that was the right thing to do.” Then, in response, Mr. MACHIDA said as follows.
Athletes are sometimes consumed by the desire to win over their rivals, and sometimes winning over their rivals becomes the objective rather than the motivation, rather than what kind of performance they want to give. Listening to Mr. SORITA, I felt that it is very important not to blur what kind of performance you ultimately want to achieve and what you want to convey.
The importance of not blurring “what you want to convey” could also be said about Christian evangelism. In today’s Bible passages, we see that Paul and Peter were basically in agreement about what they wanted to convey. It may be a secular view to see Paul and Peter as so-called “rivals.” However, it is fair to say that they were good rivals in that they were aware of each other’s different ministries, and yet they were committed to the common task of preaching the gospel of Christ. Paul and Peter had contrasting walks of life. Paul was a highly educated Jewish teacher. He became a Christian when he met the resurrected Christ in heaven during a time of his intense persecution of Christians. Peter was a fisherman who caught fish in the Lake of Galilee. And it was while working as a fisherman that he met Christ, who had begun his work as Saviour, and became a Christian. The relationship between Paul and Peter was at times highly strained, as Paul writes in verse 11 after today’s passages, “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” However, they shared the fact that they were both apostles who proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
The verses 7-8 of today’s passages state as follows.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles),
“They” were the leaders of the Jerusalem church, which verse 9 indicates, i.e., “James and Cephas and John.” These were three men: James the brother of the Lord, the son of Mary and Joseph; Cephas, or Peter; and John the son of Zebedee, who, like Peter, met Jesus Christ on the banks of the Lake of Galilee and became his disciple. These three heard from Paul and Barnabas about the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles, as we read in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. Then, as stated in verse 7, “They saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised.” “The circumcised” are Jews, i.e., those who believe in Judaism. And “the uncircumcised” are those who are not Jews, who are called “Gentiles” in the eyes of the Jews.
So why does Paul say “the circumcised” and not “the Jews,” and why does he say “the uncircumcised” and not “the Gentiles”? It is because, as I have explained in previous sermons, the problem in the Galatian churches was a problem concerning circumcision. Circumcision is a ritual in which the skin surrounding the male penis is cut off as a sign that the Jewish people are God’s people. It was usually performed on the eighth day after birth, according to the Old Testament provisions of Genesis 17:12 and Leviticus 12:3. It was also performed for non-Jews converting to Judaism, even if they were adults. After Paul left on his first missionary journey to preach Christ in Galatia, in what is now south-eastern Turkey, evangelists from the church in Jerusalem came to the churches in Galatia. These evangelists took Paul’s authority lightly and taught differently from him. Paul had taught that a person could be saved by believing in Christ, but the later evangelists taught that one could not be fully saved without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as required by the Old Testament Law.
In contrast, in verses 3-6 before today’s passages, Paul notes that when Titus, Paul’s young colleague, came to Jerusalem with Paul and Barnabas, the leaders of the Jerusalem church did not force Titus, a Gentile Christian, to be circumcised. This was strong evidence that the leaders of the Jerusalem church had not adopted the teaching of the evangelists who came to the Galatian churches after Paul, who insisted that full salvation could not be obtained without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament Law.
And in today’s passages, Paul says that the leaders of the Jerusalem church who heard Paul’s explanation, acknowledged that Paul had been entrusted to preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted to preach it to the Jews. And the reason for this is stated in verse 8: “He who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles.” “He who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised” is, of course, Christ. In other words, Christ gave Peter the task of preaching the gospel of Christ to the Jews and Paul the task of preaching the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles.
This division of duties was not Paul’s assumption, but something that was publicly recognised by the leaders of the Jerusalem church. As evidence of this, Paul writes in verse 9 as follows.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
The phrase “they gave the right hand of fellowship” indicates that James, Peter and John, the leaders of the Jerusalem church, were aware of the division of duties: Paul and Barnabas were to preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles, while the three were to preach the gospel of Christ to the Jews.
However, this division of duties probably does not mean that they strictly defined each other’s jurisdiction, but rather that Paul and Peter set out the principles of the tasks they were each to fulfil. The Acts of the Apostles gives a detailed account of Paul’s mission. When Paul preached the gospel of Christ in Gentile towns, he often preached first in Jewish synagogues. In the Jewish synagogues there were both Jews and Gentile seekers for God. And when rejected in the Jewish synagogue, Paul preached elsewhere. In the case of Corinth, the place of evangelisation was the house of a man called Titius Justus, which was next to the Jewish synagogue. In Ephesus, the place of evangelisation was the hall of Tyrannus. In places like Philippi, where there was no Jewish synagogue, he preached where prayer meetings were held. Paul’s evangelism led Gentiles to faith in Christ. However, some of those who were converted after hearing Paul’s preaching were Jews, such as Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. Also, as we read in 1 Corinthians, some members of the Corinthian church claimed “I will follow Cephas (i.e., Peter),” so it seems that Peter’s influence extended to churches outside Jerusalem. This would imply that Peter’s influence also extended to the Gentiles.
Therefore, it is better to interpret the division of duties in verses 7-9 as a rough definition of the main recipients to whom Paul and Peter would each proclaim the gospel. This means that Paul’s proclamation of the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles was approved by the leaders of the Jerusalem church. And the fact that Paul’s proclamation of the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles was approved suggests that Paul’s position on the issue of the salvation of the Gentiles should basically be respected. In other words, that a person is saved by believing in Christ and does not need to undergo the ritual of circumcision. However, despite their approval of Paul’s preaching of the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles, the leaders of the Jerusalem church apparently had not yet fully considered the “no need to undergo the ritual of circumcision” point at this time. The point was established at the so-called Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15.
Verse 10 briefly describes what Paul was asked to bear in mind in proclaiming the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. “Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” According to biblical scholars, “the poor” refers to the poor believers of the Jerusalem church. The church in Jerusalem was persecuted by Jews who did not believe in Jesus Christ, and the congregation was scattered to different parts of the country. And those believers who remained in Jerusalem must have had a difficult life, isolated from the Jews around them. Some believers must have been deprived of the means to earn a living due to persecution. Thus, despite being the first Christian church in the world, the church in Jerusalem fell into a difficult situation. The evangelistic work of the church must have been difficult and the lives of the believers must have been difficult, too. James, Peter and John, the leaders of the Jerusalem church, reminded Paul not to forget such believers of the Jerusalem church.
And remembering the poor believers of the Jerusalem church was something that Paul himself kept in mind, as he wrote: “the very thing I was eager to do.” In the first place, this meeting with the leaders of the Jerusalem church was made when Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to deliver the goods of relief from the Antioch church, as recorded in Acts 11:27-30. We can also see that Paul was mindful of the poor believers of the Jerusalem church by reading 1 Corinthians 16:1-3.
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
Thus, Paul was always mindful of supporting the poor believers of the Jerusalem church while proclaiming the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles.
Paul and Peter had been given different tasks by Christ. However, this did not mean that the gospel proclaimed by Paul and the gospel proclaimed by Peter were two different gospels. This meant that the gospel of Christ was proclaimed to different people, i.e., to the Gentiles by Paul and to the Jews by Peter. Not only that, but Paul continued to care for and support the poor believers in the Jerusalem church, Peter’s home ground. This relationship between Paul and Peter is a good example of how those who serve Christ can work together, even if at first glance they appear to be rivals.