Galatians 2:9

This was the first time that Paul named the leaders. James was Jesus’ brother (1:19).

When Jesus returned to heaven, the *disciples *preached to the *Jews. At first, only *Jews became Christians. But God wanted the *Gentiles to believe and trust Jesus too. Originally many *Jewish Christians did not like the *Gentiles. The *Jews even separated themselves from the *Gentiles. So the *Jewish Christians had to learn that God loves *Gentiles. Acts 10 describes how God taught Peter to accept *Gentiles. And Acts 11:1-18 describes how Peter persuaded the other leaders. So James, Peter and John knew that Paul was obeying God. To shake hands means that they promised to be official partners. This was a serious agreement. And it showed that Paul was as important as the other three *apostles.