Peter and Paul. Two men from radically different backgrounds. Two people whom the Lord Jesus called to the same most noble and most difficult ministry.
We know their sermons. We know their martyrdoms. We know their letters, copied and re-copied for two thousand years, sitting in the same Bible, side by side, world without end.
But there is a small, easily-missed sentence buried in one of those letters — a sentence that tells us something almost nobody preaches on. Paul writes, almost in passing, that three years after his conversion, three years after the beginning of his devoted services he went up to Jerusalem, and he stayed with Peter for fifteen days.
Fifteen days.
Two men. One place, one house, in one city, for two full weeks. And Scripture tells us almost nothing about what happened in that time...
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After Pentecost, Peter becomes the recognized voice of the Jerusalem church — preaching to the crowds (Acts 2:14 - 41), and later, having received a vision that —by challenging Peter's own instincts— opened the doors of the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius (Acts 10).
Paul, meanwhile, is told from the very moment of his calling that he is "a chosen instrument" to carry Christ's name "before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15), and is later sent out formally from Antioch (Acts 13:1 - 3).
Notice the difference in how each mission unfolds: Peter's widening toward the Gentiles comes slowly, almost reluctantly, and needs correcting by vision and Spirit. Paul's mission to the Gentiles is given to him whole, from the first day. And yet both missions come from the same source — not from human appointment, but from Christ and the Holy Spirit directly (Galatians 1:1; Acts 10:19 - 20).
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The full booklet can be read HERE
Related articles:
· Paul and Peter on reciprocity
Introducing the JoHari Window
Reciprocity
Hesed & Agape
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