1:18
So Paul has been establishing his “independence”, or perhaps rather his God dependence. He is not merely parroting a message given by the apostles, nor is he now deviating from the apostles message. The message he has been preaching is God’s message. However, he also needs to show that his gospel is actually the same gospel that the Jerusalem apostles were preaching, he is not teaching something different. So now he will demonstrate that he and the other apostles are in agreement. So three years later he did go up to Jerusalem and met with Peter (Cephas), spending fifteen days with him.
1:19,20
The only other apostle whom he met was James, the brother of Jesus. Paul then vehemently asserts that he is telling the truth. When there are false teachings going about we should not expect everyone to act nicely. There will be false teachers who make all sorts of unfounded accusations, so Paul needs to defend himself most strongly.
1:21-24
Paul was not known personally in the Judean churches, they did know of his reputation as a persecutor of the church. Then once he had had the Damascus road experience they knew that he was now preaching the very gospel that he had once so zealously persecuted. “And they praised God because of me”. So again Paul is making the twofold point. On the one hand he was not influenced by the Judean churches, and so his teaching that circumcision was not necessary for Gentile christians was not a deviation from their teaching. At the same time he was approved of by them, for “they praised God because of me”.
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