FALSELY ACCUSED?

Have you ever been falsely accused? Someone has impugned your integrity or questioned your veracity? Perhaps others have circulated stories about you that painted a negative picture. Guilt by association or statements taken out of context were used to undermine your credibility. The stories went viral through social media. Your ministry is threatened because people wonder if you can be trusted to tell the truth. How should you respond? Should you defend yourself? Paul did, repeatedly!

"Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying" (Gal. 1:20).

THE BACK STORY

Church leaders from the mother church in Jerusalem had arrived among the churches in Galatia attacking Paul's integrity. These church leaders claimed to represent the apostles in Jerusalem, and they falsely accused Paul of five failures in his ministry. 1) He did not possess the authority to preach independently, as he claimed. He was under the authority of the apostles in the Jerusalem church. 2) The apostles in Jerusalem were the only ones who had the authority to define the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 3) Paul had gone to Jerusalem to learn the gospel from the mother church, and the apostles authorized him to preach the gospel they taught to him. He learned his gospel second-hand from them. Later in Antioch, Peter and the apostles had rebuked Paul for preaching error. 4) Paul had agreed to follow what they said but then adapted his message to preach his own watered-down version of the gospel designed to be acceptable to the Gentiles by minimizing the importance of God's law. 5) Paul was deceiving the Galatians about the gospel and misleading them about himself and his authority. The Galatians should not trust him or his message (Longenecker, Galatians, xcvi-c).

A SOLEMN OATH

How it must have galled Paul to defend himself against these false accusations. He refutes the false allegations in his letter to the Galatians (Gal. 1:16ff). Contrary to what these leaders claimed, Paul's first visit to Jerusalem was a social call. He retells the story of meeting Peter and James (Gal. 1:18-19) and later explains what really happened with Peter in Antioch (Gal. 2:11ff). Paul corrects the twisted, upside-down version of the story being told by his false accusers to defend his trustworthiness in ministry. He vehemently takes an oath before God that he is telling the truth (Gal. 1:20).

Paul says, "See before God that I am not lying." The opening particle "see," "behold," or "listen" (ἰδοὺ) emphasizes what follows. "Before God" (ἐνώπιον τοῖ θεοῦ) introduces a common oath formula and "I am not lying" (οὐ ψεύδομαι) implies that there is another wrong account of events. The story Paul is telling is the truth. All other stories are false. No matter how believable their story or unbelievable his story, Paul takes a solemn oath that what he is telling them is the "honest to God" truth. The formula Paul uses to deny that he is lying is a typical formula used in Roman legal proceedings (Rienecker and Rogers, Linguistic Key, 503). Generally, the Roman courts discouraged the offering of oaths unless it was absolutely necessary. Paul apparently felt it was absolutely necessary to use a courtroom oath to defend his version of the story (Bruce, Galatians, 102) although Paul did not believe Christians should go to court to settle their differences (1 Cor. 6:1-8)!

ANOTHER OATH IN SELF DEFENSE

Interestingly, Paul uses the same oath in a later context when defending his integrity before similar attacks (2 Cor. 11:31). God knows that I am not lying (οὐ ψεύδομαι), Paul argued when explaining in more detail the events surrounding King Aretas and his escape from Damascus. Apparently, the false stories about Paul continued as other church leaders attacked his integrity, and he once again took another oath about his trustworthiness. Paul stressed that he would only boast in his weakness when he tells about his escape in a basket through a window in the wall. By boasting only in his weakness and making God the hero, Paul's veracity is demonstrated in contrast to the self-adulation of his false accusers.

Paul's defense was in stark contrast to one of the highest awards that the Roman army could confer on a soldier. The "wall crown" honored the soldier who scaled the wall of an enemy city first. The honor was still being awarded in Paul's day (Witherington, Conflict & Community in Corinth, 458). The worldly hero scales the wall first, Paul claims. The servant of Christ is the first down the wall in defeat. Why? God's power is perfected in weakness. His false accusers may claim high honors and attack his weakness. Paul's account is true because he claims no honor for himself but gives God the glory for using him in his weakness and defeat. Paul's oath rings true because it is not self-glorifying. When we defend ourselves, we must avoid self-adulation in our defense.

The sting of unjust criticism is hard to take as pastors, especially when stories are circulated about us that are not true. Often we find it hard to defend ourselves because we can't divulge confidential information. However, we can and must defend our integrity when the ministry is compromised by false accusations. Sometimes we even have to assert that we are not lying just like Paul even though the assertion itself is painfully frustrating. When the gospel is compromised because our credibility is undermined, we defend the Lord when we defend ourselves.

AVOIDING ISOLATIONISM

Paul established his apostolic independence by stressing that he received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12) and not through the instruction of the other apostles. He spent the first three years of his ministry preaching in Arabia independent of any apostolic credentialing, approval or support. Paul needed no one to validate his missional calling to preach Christ to the Gentiles (Gal. 1:16-17).

However, Paul also understood that independence can be taken to extremes. Isolationism is not the Christian way! We live and serve in the body of Christ, so we must avoid an isolationist mentality in ministry. Missions is also a corporate calling so, after three years, Paul made his way to Jerusalem to meet Peter and James, the leaders of the mother church (Gal. 1:18-19).

Paul time stamps his narrative with the adverb "then" or "next" (ἔπειτα) as he retells his testimony (Gal. 1:18). The same timestamp frames his testimony in 1:21 and 2:1 as Paul lays out the sequence of his conversion and early ministry (Bruce, Galatians, 97). He portrays the visit to Peter in Jerusalem as primarily a personal visit when he says that he stayed with Peter for 15 days. The prepositional phrase "with him" (πρὸς αὐτὸν) implies the relational connection. The singular pronoun, as opposed to a plural pronoun or place name, indicates the personal nature of the visit (Burton, Galatians, 59).

THE BACK STORY

The church in Jerusalem hardly welcomed Paul. They were highly suspicious of him, so Barnabas vouched for him to the apostles (Acts 9:27). The impression we get from Galatians is that Paul spent his time visiting, but Luke gives us more insight (Acts 9:28-31). Paul was doing much more than having quiet tea times with the apostles. He was preaching Christ and arguing with Hellenists throughout the city so much so that some were attempting to put him to death! If the Christians thought that life would be peaceful since the persecutor was now a Christian, they were in for a rude awakening. Controversy followed him wherever he went! Relationships can be messy. Isolationism can seem appealing, and the church found peace after Paul was gone! (Acts 9:31, Bruce, Apostle of the Heart Set Free, 83-94)

Luke tells us that Paul met the apostles, but Paul tells us that he met only Peter and James among the apostles. The two statements are not contradictory since two is plural, but the combination helps us interpret the connective "except" (εἰ μὴ). Some, uncomfortable with viewing James, the Lord's brother, as an apostle, argue that the exception refers to others and not the apostles. In this view, Paul did not see anybody else other than the apostles except James. This seems unlikely. We know from Acts that Paul met many other people in Jerusalem, even stirring up trouble! The stronger contextual argument is that Paul included James among the apostles (Burton, Galatians, 60) using the word "apostle" in a broader sense than the apostolate (the 12). So, Paul did not see any other apostles except James.

INTERVIEWS OR NOT?

The verb translated "become acquainted" (ἱστορῆσαι) often carries the force of an interview in classical Greek. Certainly, Paul interviewed Peter in at least an informal sense, but the word can also mean to get acquainted with someone (Bruce, Galatians, 98). Paul did not need to take a crash course in Christian theology from Peter, but Peter would provide many historical details about Jesus that Paul would find fascinating. One detail that we only learn from Paul, but had to come from Peter, is that Christ appeared to Peter by himself after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:5). The story of Peter's betrayal and Christ's personal revelation to Peter must have resonated with Paul in his own experience. Both men experienced incredible grace from the Lord after committing horrible sins against the Lord.

The same can be said of James, the Lord's brother. The story of his transformation from a good Jew who refused to follow Jesus (John 7:5) to a leader in the church of Christ (Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5) is also a compelling story of grace which Paul understood. How could this happen? Paul alone tells us that Jesus appeared to James before he appeared to all the apostles (1 Cor. 15:7), adding that Jesus appeared to Paul "last of all, as one untimely born" (Cor. 15:8). Only James could have given Paul this nugget of information. Christ's personal revelation to James and Paul explains the transforming power of grace in their lives.

Our relationships in the Body of Christ are vital to the health of the church. People often cite James and Paul as if they are in opposition to each other. Peter and Paul have their differences (Gal. 2:11ff). Yet, it is Peter and James who influence the church at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) to support Paul's ministry to the Gentiles. The personal bonds forged at their initial meeting in Jerusalem foster unity at a critical moment in the history of the early church.

Christian relationships may be messy, but isolationism must be avoided.