In applying Galatians 2:6: "And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)--those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me", Peter Oakes writes:
A God who does not regard reputation is good news for most Christians, then and now. Belief in such a God also relieves the pressure to expend energy in seeking status and reputation....Galatians 2:6 suggests that there is something wrong with their vision of God if members of a church do not interact with one another as equals, if they do not resist carrying across into church life either the status ranking endemic in society or the new status ranking that easily grows up within a group that meets over a long period, such as a church. In the first century, this required avoiding both carrying Greco-Roman household hierarchies into assembly life and also inventing new hierarchies... [Galatians, Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), p. 74.]
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