Galatians 2:6-14
All Types Belong in the Kingdom

As for those who seemed to be important--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance--those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be 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 Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?"

New International Version

The message that Paul sent to the church in Galatia focused on his frequent teaching that Grace saves us, not our obedience to Law. If we are dependent on our own perfection, we would all be condemned by our sinful nature. It was a crucial theological matter in the early church, well worth the primacy he gave the topic in many letters and discussions.

With that said, set aside for a moment Paul's message and instead look at the character of Paul revealed in this passage. Note the disdain as Paul writes about those Jerusalem church leaders "reputed to be pillars." See his indignation as he tells of his confrontation with Peter "to his face." Notice his lack of tact as he challenges Peter "in front of them all" to explain the hypocrisy that Paul perceived.

Now look at the person of Peter, reading between the lines of Paul's notes and recalling other scriptures. We know Peter was very emotional and passionate, driven by his heart instead of his mind (to use modern body metaphors.) We see Peter acting in ways sensitive to other people, trying not to offend the Gentiles, then trying not to offend the conservative Jewish Christians in the "circumcision group."

I would not defend Peter's apparent choice to compromise rather than to hold to the truth. However, I think Paul, too, was wrong in how insensitive he was in his reactions. Instead of strengthening the frail tie between the Gentile and Jewish Christians, it seems to me Paul's heavy-handed condemnation of Jerusalem church leaders might have widened the schism.

Why was there such an explosive disagreement between these powerful Christian leaders? It's rather simple, even inevitable, when we consider the personality differences between these two!

If you are familiar with business management theories, you might have heard of Blake and Mouton's "Management Grid." Peter, in this instance, was a clear fit for a "5,5" management style, trying to find a compromising middle ground that seeks to avoid problems, or at least irritate everyone equally. It's a dreadful, misguided style that would have left others, like Paul, wondering just what was important to Peter. Paul, in this instance, was a clear fit for a "9,1" management style, so consumed by the results that he devoured anyone who disagreed with him in any way. That, too, is a dreadful, misguided style that would have burned out his supporters and created legions of enemies for Paul without good reason--and without being particularly productive or effective.

You might be familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality assessments. From this episode, I speculate that Peter was an Extrovert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceptive type, while Paul was an Extrovert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging type. Paul saw "black and white" issues, and if Peter didn't condemn those who would require all Christians to follow the Jewish traditions, then Peter should himself be condemned. Peter saw "relationship" issues, seeking to build bonds between people with all manner of beliefs, to pull them together as the Body of Christ. Neither ESFP or ENTJ are "right", they just "are."

In God's plan, the church is big enough to need all sorts of personality types and styles, even when it means my brother in Christ and I are so different we are almost certain to clash and argue. It's really quite astonishing to think that God created us with such major differences that would provoke strong disagreements among Christians. For one recent example, consider that in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, there were devout Christians supporting Bush, Kerry, and Nader, with such fervor and commitment they couldn't understand how other Christians wouldn't also support their candidate!

What do we do, then, with these differences to avoid the damage that can come from them? The answer is seen elsewhere in the lives of these two men.

First, consider how much Paul changed by the time he wrote, in 1 Corinthians 9:22, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." Paul is still not advocating compromising the truth, but in the decade or more that passed from when he wrote the Galatians passage, Paul had gained an understanding of how his preferences and opinions were of no benefit if they interfered with the message of Christ. The growth of his faith, and God's love at work making Paul into a new creature, smoothed his rough edges to lead Paul away from confrontation to become better at persuasion.

We don't have much in the scriptures that tell us of Peter's later years, but tradition tells us the unreliable, emotional fisherman, and the compromising target of Paul's anger, grew in his faith to live up to the name "the rock" that Jesus gave him. He became so steadfast and uncompromising that tradition tells us that he traveled to Rome to preach during the reign of Nero, where he was arrested and crucified.

Paul's personality became less confrontational as he grew in faith; Peter's personality gained stability and resolve as he grew in faith. Some who have applied the Myers-Briggs styles to Biblical characters tell us that Jesus evidenced a balanced personality, demonstrating the best characteristics of Extrovert and Introvert, Sensing and Intuitive, Thinking and Feeling, Judging and Perceptive types.

Jesus told his disciples, in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Our goal should be to deny ourselves as we allow God to make over our personality traits into those God can use in us. Nichole Nordeman uses the image of rocks in a river in her song "River God," as we allow ourselves to be slowly smoothed and shaped by God to become more like Jesus Christ. God uses every part of all of us, even our widely varying personalities, to make up the Kingdom of God.