God’s people (the ekklesia) are a body of individual saints whose personal work and labor of love confirm their identity as disciples of Christ. It is not determined by which church they are members of, or where they went to school. If today’s so-called saints are identified by their membership instead of their personal life, they will become immobilized by the expected norms of faithful church membership. In addition, when church leaders are put in positions of authority that we have given them and a “hireling” preacher is added to the work, the majority of members become mere spectators. Members speak of “they” and “them” when speaking of the work of the local church rather than “us” and “we.” This is foreign to the New Testament and stunts the personal growth and development of individual saints. An efficient and wise leader, the Holy Spirit, involved all saints by equipping them for service that involved them in the encouragement and use of their gifts. As already noted in a previous section, the obligation was reciprocal. We are all our brother’s keepers.
Galatians 2:3-5 reads,
But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
In verse 14 of that same chapter, Paul withstood Peter to his face because “his conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel” (ESV). In his rebuke, he adds, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Peter describes the leaders as leaders by example rather than under compulsion and that they are not domineering over those in their charge (1 Peter 5:1-3).
Each Christian was responsible for their own decisions and actions, despite the teaching of the shepherds. Even while there was greater confidence in these spiritual shepherds than we can have in today’s leadership, each individual was responsible. Galatians 2 shows two examples of an individual standing for truth, even while other leaders failed to preserve the truth of the gospel. In this case, some teachers were demanding that Titus be circumcised, but Paul did not give in to this pressure. Peter, on the other hand, had failed to provide a living example of it by giving in to the pressure. Why didn’t Paul just follow Peter’s lead like Barnabas? Why didn’t he give in to the Judaizing teachers and bow to their demands to have Titus circumcised? Paul was responsible for himself and his teaching and could not hide behind Peter’s cloak or justify himself based on Peter’s actions.