PEOPLE OF REPUTATION
Galatians 2.2.6-8
Whose Paul actually meant than he mentioned certain people of "reputation."? (2). Most likely he meant the Apostles of Christ and some other leaders of the church. The interval of 14 years (1) perhaps starts from the moment of his conversion by Christ and this moment of arriving in Jerusalem after he left Jerusalem to go to Damascus to hunt for Christians.
In this period of time Paul assembled his own group of faithful and dedicated Christian without seeing any of the Apostles or anyone who were directly associated with Christ. Paul after he heard Christ considered himself no less than any of the Apostles of Christ and decided to meet Apostles in Jerusalem to present his work and his Gospel he had preached to Gentiles.
Words, "but I did so in private to those who were of reputation." By this words Paul stated that he submitted his work in private to Apostles of Christ. Probably Paul was afraid to present them his version of the Gospel he preached to Gentiles, thinking that perhaps the Gospel preached to the Jews by Apostles of Christ may be a different than his Gospel, on the basis that some Jews push Gentiles to obey some rituals of the Law of Moses that Paul totally rejected.
Paul was firmly against it and fear only one thing, to found out that Apostles in Jerusalem and other leaders of the church may disagree with him on this issue and he has to fight with them also (2).
~ 2. "I might be running or had run in vain." KSB. (1Corinthians 9.26). "I did not want my work in the past or in the present to be a failure." GNB.
In verse 6 Paul declared his personal opinion concerning Apostles and other leaders of the church, despite the fact that they have Gospel of Christ first hand and saw and heard the Christ in flesh, still, they make no difference for him in terms of Gospel and leadership Like Jesus Christ Paul has no partiality in ranks and positions in the church or among those who preach Gospel. Above all, they nothing contributed to him in his work to spread the Gospel among Gentiles (6), and so, they have no special importance to Paul in contribution to his work.
On the other hand Paul recognized the "pillars" of the church in Jerusalem mentioning James, Peter, and John. Concerning James, he may be the James the son of Alphaeus, or James the Lord's brother, one of these two (Galatians 1.19).
As Paul wrote, in verse 10, James, Peter, and John, "only asked us to remember the poor." While Paul explains them his version of the Gospel he teaches to Gentiles, they did not argue with him about anything, but only asked "to remember the poor," and of course Paul himself "was eager to do."
HYPOCRISY
In verses 11-15 Paul found certain hypocrisy in Peter who used to eat with Gentiles. By tradition Jews avoided to eat or even to communicate with Gentiles due to the Law of Moses which forbid Jews any association with foreigners in order not o adapt their religion and pagan way of living, except those foreigners who are settle in Israel and submit themselves to the Law of Moses.
Peter ate with Gentiles because they have been converted to Christ, and he shown by this that in Christ there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. Paul does not blame Peter for that, but Paul was irritated when he saw Peter hiding from the group of Jews sent by James, the group of Jews that were in favor of circumcising Gentiles.
Paul also was annoyed by seeing that the rest of the Jews in Jerusalem church also joined those who were in favor to circumcise Gentiles and even faithful friend and helper of Paul Barnabas also joined them (11-15).
SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL
Paul made a fantastic statement in verse 16 saying: "a man is not justified by works of the Law (the Rituals of the Law of Moses), but through Faith in Christ (by Spiritual Commandment of the Law of Moses that Jesus Christ introduced to humanity - the Gospel). Paul let by this know that Rituals of the Law no longer playing part in Christ's Spiritual teachings because they are not coming from the heart- spirit of the worshiper but from the written Regulations and have no connection with the Spiritual Commandments of the Law or the heart of the worshiper.
Immediately after saying this Paul made another statement in verses 17-19 explaining that by putting the Rituals of the Law of Moses aside we do not sin by doing this. Even Christ Himself when He fulfill the Law in full (Ritual and Spiritual Commandments of the Law) no longer taught to obey the Rituals of the Law, but taught only Spiritual Commandment of the Law: Faith, Hope, and Love.
Just like a seed must die in order to produce its fruit, and so Paul died to the Law of Rituals that he might live to GOD, according to His Spiritual Commandments of the Law, in Faith, Hope, and in Love. (1Corinthians 13.13) (1Thessalonians 5.8).
Not in the physical life with GOD people only live with GOD but also in Spiritual life people can live with GOD. GOD is the Holy Spirit and accept only Spiritual qualities of character and personality of a human, because whatever physical action comes out of a human being it is direct result of his spirit-heart. Spirit lives with the Spirit and physical matter belong only to physical matter.
~ 19. *Through the Law I died to the Law. This means that when a person achieve the highest Spiritual Level in the Law, the written Law on the other hand no longer have the authority over such person, because the Spiritual Law has been written on the heart-the spirit of a person and for this reason all other physical ritualistic Laws comes not only from the written Law but now come also and from the heart of this Spiritual person. The written physical Law of rituals became obsolete, because now it is written in the spirit of a person and guides such person only by its Spiritual Commandments.
Paul speaks here symbolically and figuratively saying that by knowing the Law, obeying the Law, and fulfilling the Law, he Paul died to the written ritualistic Law and step up to a higher level of the Law, the Spiritual Law, and live now according to the Spiritual Law written in his heart-spirit.
In order to make it clearer, in verse 20 Paul stated that he have been even crucified with Christ and now Christ lives in him, and while he Paul still living in flesh he have now Spiritual Life in Faith in the Son of GOD. Paul presented it as metamorphosis when one form of life transformers to completely another form of life, but in Paul's case it is from the physical life to the Spiritual life in Christ.
Paul also specified in verse 21 that Righteousness as a Spiritual Quality cannot come from obedience to the written Rituals of the Law of Moses because Rituals do not have their Spiritual Qualities in them, unless they presented to GOD from the heart-spirit of a person with regret, sorrow, and repentance. So, the Righteousness as a Spiritual Quality belongs only to the Spiritual World, and upon such Spiritual Quality people are justified before GOD.
Abraham BELIEVED in GOD and this reckoned to him as Righteousness, not his physical sacrifice to GOD reckoned to him as Righteousness, but his Spiritual Faith in GOD that GOD is able to resurrect his son from the dead and give him back to him, this was reckoned to Abraham as Righteousness.
In this case Abraham proved his Faith by Faithfully Believing in God and proved his Righteousness by his physical action in readiness to sacrifice his only son for his GOD.