The Gospel spread throughout the Near East and Gentiles were bring welcomed into the Christian faith. This was the product of such efforts as Paul and Barnabas' first missionary trip throughout Galatia, Philip's evangelism in Samaria, and Peter's visit to Cornelius in Caesarea.
As Gentiles were brought it, this immediately raised the question of how much Jewish tradition should the Gentiles be expected to practice. After all, if Christianity is based on the Jewish tradition, does Christianity encompass Jewish traditions.
The issue was divisive and explosive. External threats remained and many of the church founders eventually face martyrdom. Here, an internal division could destroy the church just as easily as Roman soldiers.
This issue is addressed in both the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
More details of exact source of the division are specified in Acts 15. Pharisee converts to Christianity declared that the Gentile converts must both (1) be circumcised and (2) keep the law of Moses. In Galatians, Paul identifies the same issues in dispute, but does not specify the source of it beyond "some" people.
In some sense, this perspective is understandable. For after all, Jesus did say that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What does this mean? The early church was confused about it.
However, in laying the background of the issue, Paul calls the perspective of the Christian Pharisees in very harsh terms - "a perversion of the Gospel".
Paul is present at the Council of Jerusalem. So, it is likely that he wrote Galatians on the way to Jerusalem. Alternatively, he wrote it as a companion peace to the letter that Council of Jerusalem issues. However, he does not mention the Council of Jerusalem in Galatians, which he probably would have had the Council of Jerusalem occurred before writing Galatians.
The Council of Jerusalem listens to Paul, Barnabas, and James (the remaining apostle, not the brother of John or brother of Jesus). They eventually conclude that the Gentile converts do not need to be circumcised or follow any other part of the Law of Moses with the following exceptions:
1. No eating food offered before idols
2. No consuming blood
3. Meat of strangled animals
4. No sexual immorality.
The letter concludes by saying that "you will be well to avoid these". This implies that it was advice and not an official theological statement. That said, advice coming from the apostles of the church, all but one were with Jesus throughout his ministry, this advice is important and know that they reflect theological concerns.
On one hand, it is a strange combination. However, the food practices likely seem to be a concession to prevent too much division. These food issues are not later reiterated as important for other churches to follow unless other church brothers find it highly offensive. The key example of this is food offered to idols.
Sexual immorality is frequently admonished against in later epistles to the various churches. We know from other writings that this directly reflects theology, while the food concerns seem to indirectly reflect concerns about divisions.
The letter from the Council does not fully explain the reasoning behind this. Meanwhile, Paul's letter to the Galatians certainly does. Here are the highlights that I found in his reasoning:
1. Paul called Peter out on living like a Gentile, but then requiring the Gentiles become like Jews. (2:11-21)
2. The law of Moses is one entire entity that should be taken at all once. If you believe you should be circumcised, you must follow the rest of the law too. (3:10; 5:3). This makes people cursed to the law. (3:10-12)
3. Christ redeemed us from the law by becoming cursed. (3:13)
4. Requiring obedience to the law for righteousness means Christ's sacrifice was for nothing. (2:21)
5. Abraham was counted righteous through grace and a promise of God because the law came 430 years after him. (3:16-18)
6. The Gentiles in Galatia received grace and the Spirit of God before doing the law.
7. Continuing with the Abraham theme, he analogizes the law versus grace in Christ to Abraham's two children. One was born of a free woman, the other a slave. By requiring the law for salvation, we become the slave. This logic is an attack on one of the necessity of maintaining a Jewish identity, since it implies that law observance forfeits one's inheritance as children of Abraham.
This seems to be the core reasoning about salvation through faith and not law, as outlined in Galatians. Paul knows he cannot stop there. He then talks about how good moral character comes out of living by the Spirit. He specifies various actions of the sinful nature in contrast to the fruits of the Spirit. Circumcision means nothing, but rather be new creation.
Galatians post-script
At the beginning of Galatians, Paul explains how he became an Apostle and he defends his status of Apostleship. (1:11-24) Although he did not know Jesus personally like the other Apostles did (which was the criteria to replace Judas in Acts 1:21-22), Paul was chosen by God to go to the Gentiles.
Further, Paul also received a revelation directly from Jesus of a Gospel. Paul mentions that he spent three years in Arabia, which may be the time that this Gospel revelation occurred. He did not receive the details of the Gospel that was revealed to him from other people. Finally, Paul meets with Peter and James (brother of Jesus) in Jerusalem and Peter, which means that Peter oversaw Paul and approved of the Gospel that he received.
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