But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:
But. So far were they from regarding me as running in vain, that 'not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek (and therefore uncircumcised), was compelled to be circumcised.' The "false brethren," Galatians 2:4 ("certain of the Pharisees which believed," Acts 15:5), demanded his circumcision. The apostles, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas (Galatians 2:5), did not insist on his being circumcised. Thus, they sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles, and admitted his independence as an apostle-the point he desires to set forth here. Timothy, however, being a proselyte of the gate, and son of a Jewess (Acts 16:1), he circumcised (Acts 16:3). Christianity did not interfere with Jewish usages, regarded merely as social ordinances (though no longer religiously significant), in the case of Jews and proselytes, while the Jewish polity and temple stood; after their overthrow, those usages necessarily ceased. To insist on Jewish usages for Gentile converts would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity. To violate them abruptly in the case of Jews would have been inconsistent with that charity which (in matters indifferent) becomes all things to all men, that by all means it may win some (1 Corinthians 9:22: cf. Romans 14:1-7; Romans 14:13-23). Paul brought Titus with him as a living example of the power of the Gospel upon uncircumcised pagan.