"But from the [ones] being reputed to being someone - of what sort formerly they were is not differing to me, God is not receiving face of man - Indeed, to me the [ones] being reputed imparted nothing... But rather instead having seen that I had been entrusted with the Good News of the uncircumcised just as Peter of the circumcised... For the [One] having worked in Peter unto apostleship of the circumcised worked also in me unto the nations... And having known the grace having been given to me, Jacob and Cephas and John, the [ones] being reputed to being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas right hands of koinonia, in order that we [should go] unto the nations, but they unto the circumcised."
-Paul refers in this section to those who were of high reputation, and specifically to Jacob (aka James, Jesus’ brother) and Peter (aka Cephas) and John (the two remaining members of the ‘three’) as having the reputation of being pillars, i.e. the primary key supporting pieces in the structure of the church. We must remember that Paul didn’t know these guys very well. He had very little relationship with them whatsoever. In the time since his conversion he had spent almost all of it in Damascus or Tarsus or Antioch. But their reputation meant very little to Paul. Man does tend to idolize, to put people on a pedestal. It is the cult of celebrity, the tendency to confer honor and special status on others for reasons of achievement or position. And while it is not entirely inappropriate to honor our fellow man under certain circumstances, the impartial eyes of God do in fact ultimately level the playing field. For his part, Paul in now way allows himself to be unduly influenced by the status of these reputed pillars.
-Paul reiterates that nobody in Jerusalem, not even Peter or James or John, gave him anything with regard to the content of the good news he was preaching, no requirement vis a vis circumcision, gave him nothing at all except what he refers to as ‘right hands of fellowship’. They never at any time asked or instructed him to modify or change his message in any way. Paul does mention here that those in Jerusalem did ask them to remember the poor - something very close to the heart of God and which Paul was quite glad to do. In Acts we read as well that those in Jerusalem (at James’ suggestion) did ask the believers in Antioch to abstain from four things (Acts 15.20, 28-29) - from things sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled (which would still retain their blood), and from fornication. These were not held up in any way as being salvific (necessary works for earning salvation), yet all four would have been readily associated with rituals found in the worship of pagan idols at that time. And while freedom in Christ would have perhaps still allowed for the first three, with only that last one being straight up sin (cf Matthew 15.19; 1Corinthians 6.13, 6.18; 1Thessalonians 4.3), abstaining from all four would undoubtedly help the Gentile converts to not offend the religious sensibilities of their Jewish brethren (Paul takes up this theme in some of his later letters - cf Romans 14.21; 1Corinthians 8.13, 10.25-28) - which does bring up a crucial point. In Christ they were all brethren. As in family. Note that there was never any allowance or consideration that the families of those who followed Christ in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia (or any other place) would ever assemble for worship separately according to race or ethnicity or even cultural preference. They were all together, all to be of one heart and soul, one mind, intent on one purpose, striving together for the progress of the Gospel, fully aware that their oneness and demonstrated love for one another was powerful confimration of the truth of their message to the ones outside looking askance at Christ.
-And in that spirit, these leaders of the Jerusalem church gave both Paul and Barnabas the so-called right hands of fellowship. This was a special gesture of affirmation - shaking hands may not have been as commonplace in that culture as it is in the present-day united states. James and Peter and John recognized these two essentially as partners and as missionaries, specifically for carrying the Gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning to non-Jews, just as they had clearly been marked out as missionaries to the Jewish community.
-But in the end we see not a building or a meeting nor any cult of celebrity or sibling rivalry but a family of brothers and sisters in Christ who have each and all been rescued by grace and not by any work or religious ritual, a spiritual family who comes together to worship and serve in order to further the progress of the Good News, a family that loves one another beautifully, and one which remembers the poor in that place, that community where they assemble. More on that in verse 10...
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