PETER AND PAUL
- QUESTION: I've been told that Peter's epistles were addressed to believers of the Kingdom church, and not to the Church of this dispensation, the Body of Christ. My question concerns his second epistle. In the salutation, the apostle addressed his letter "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." In chapter three, verses 15 and 16, he noted that "....our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given to him hath written unto you." Did Paul write letters to the Kingdom church, or was Peter's letter written to believers in the Body of Christ?
- ANSWER: Peter wrote to Jews who continued to follow Christ's teachings for the Kingdom Dispensation. Peter and Paul were friends. They each represented a different Dispensation, but each fellowshiped with the other's group. Paul visited Jerusalem and met with the Kingdom Apostles. Peter visited Antioch and met with the Grace Gospel Apostles. They understood and accepted the differences and similarities. Even though they followed Christ through different Household Rules, they both served the same Lord and Savior. Paul opposed Peter to his face when he withdrew from eating with Gentiles in Antioch when some Jews visited from Jerusalem. Peter was afraid of these men. Paul called Peter's actions hypocrisy and said they "were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel." Paul reminded Peter and other Jews who had followed him that "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ." (Galatians 2)
Peter told his Jewish audience that though Paul wrote letters containing "some things that are hard to understand," what he wrote was Scripture and true. Paul apparently wrote one or more letters to people he knew from the Kingdom Dispensation, but we have no record of them. Paul wrote other letters that were not saved as part of God's Word. Letter writing was a primary means of communication at that time. Paul's ministry was specifically to Gentiles and Jews in the Age of Grace. That was his calling and authority. His letters were copied and sent from church to church to church. It may be that Peter's audience also read copies of Paul's letters to Christian churches. Paul's teaching was quite different from Peter's because his was a different Dispensation of God. Peter made it clear that even though Paul's teaching was hard to understand, it was still God's Word and should be revered as Truth. Peter may have also written a letter or letters to Gentile believers. Peter visited Gentile churches and knew the believers on a personal basis. He may have stayed in contact with them by letter. However, Peter did not have the authority to write the Gentiles as "their" apostle. Peter's authority was to the Jews. Paul's to the Gentiles.
