Lesson 5: Following the Right Leaders
Read Galatians 1:1-24 - www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.1
13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

We live in a world where leaders of many kinds, whether they be business or political or religious, have learned the art of drawing people into their circles to create power structures for themselves. This is not new; we have seen such leaders throughout this world’s history – some of them good, but many of them bad as they either used their followers for their own purposes or destroyed them for the sake of their pride.


In today’s verses, we read Paul’s own experience with leaders. He had been the student of one of the greatest religious leaders of the Jewish people. In fact, from his own testimony as well as from history, we find that Paul was on the path to replacing this great leader when this man, Gamaliel, died (see also Acts 5:33-40 and Acts 22:3). Paul had the equivalent education in today’s understanding of a Doctor of Law and a Doctor of Theology. Paul was on a path to power and prestige – but he was following the wrong leaders. Even though Gamaliel was a very religious man, he was not a man of God (see again Acts 5:33-40).

So when Paul went to Jerusalem looking for support for the ministry God had called him to, he did not go see his former teacher and mentor. He did not even go to the believers in Jesus, the Church. He went only to Peter (Cephas), the man who had, by the power of the Holy Spirit, become the leader of the disciples.

Please note in these verses that Paul did not immediately go to learn what he could from Jesus’ disciples, but spent about three years living in the desert letting the Holy Spirit teach him the Truth about all the things he already knew about the Scriptures.

How does this apply to our lives today? Our first loyalty should always be to Jesus and the Bible. While Jesus wants us to be part of a local church, this does not mean we should blindly believe everything we hear in church. We must confirm what any leader says by studying the Bible to see if it is true.

We will study more about this in the next lesson.

*When you have a question about God, where do you go first? Who knows the Lord and His Word well so you trust them to help you with your questions?