Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things" 1 John 2:20,27
Those words were penned by John in his first epistle and to me they mean, when we get saved and have the Holy Spirit inside us, He guides us in discovering truth from the Bible. The problem is, since we still have a fallen brain and sin nature, sometimes our interpretation of the Bible can be wrong. That's why it is still important to check what you are learning with orthodoxy because new truths learned by you after 2000 years of the Church also studying scripture and not discovering what you discovered, probably means that your interpretation is wrong. My Dad used to say, be careful of anyone giving new truths or knowledge. Andy Stanley came out with a series ,"The N Commandments", which were the New Commandments by Christ, and I shared my Dad's warning with him as a message and he responded, "Be a student, not a critic." Haha. At least I got a response, but I do believe that this is a danger when you are individually not connected with other learners or as a church, not under the oversight of a denomination. There was a non-denominational church we used to visit in Knoxville and when the Pastor's daughter got cancer, the church turned into a Charismatic church focusing on healing.
Paul has studied alone for over a dozen years, yet hearing from God, and his ministry was so countercultural or non-mainstream, that he had to go to Jerusalem to run it by those who spent three years immersed in the face-to-face teachings of Christ. Paul was teaching that gentiles could be saved by faith alone and not doing the Old Testament acts like sacrifices, feasts, and circumcisions and frankly not going to the temple and observing the Sabbath. Paul did not get it wrong, in fact Peter through his encounter with Cornelius had paved the way for this meeting with Paul and they encouraged him that his teaching was "on point."
It's good to have an old Christian as a mentor. I remember reading the biography of Keith Green, No Compromise, and Keith was always getting radical words from the Lord in his Bible study and quiet times and sometimes they were a little "out there." Fortunately, he had a mentor in Leonard Ravenhill who would speak truth into his life and attempt to correct error. I say "attempt" because Keith could be kind of hardheaded. I look at the young Christian teachers and artists out there today who get quite a large audience due to social media, and I hope that they have an old mentor who they can run their "words from God" through. If Paul didn't trust his hearing from God, how much less should we.
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