Man's Opinion Or God's

"But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me." (Galatians 2:6 - New King James Version)

Men held James, Peter and John in high regard. However, that did not make Paul and the other Apostles inferior in God’s eyes. These men had nothing to add either to Paul’s apostolic authority or to his understanding of the Gospel.

It is kind of ironic that today, some Christians tend to exalt the Apostle Paul and downplay the importance of the other Apostles. This is the exact attitude that Paul was battling here. He considered himself equal with the Apostles. He would not tolerate being considered inferior. Neither did he ever seek to exalt himself above them.

Paul was a great Apostle. But just because we do not know many details of the ministry of the others does not mean we should consider them inferior. We do not know what Apostles such as Timothy or Andrew did. They may have had ministries as great as Paul’s. We do not know.
 
We should not judge people according to man’s opinion of them. We should judge people as God judges. Some of the greatest people, from God’s point of view, live faithful Christian lives out of the lime light of public view.