The Acts of the Apostles, chapters 14 and 15, gives us the background to the Letter Paul wrote to the Galatians. The controversy involving circumcision, observance of Jewish dietary laws, and avoidance of contact with other unconverted Gentiles produced a crisis which faced Paul at the end of his First Missionary Journey. Paul, a liberal universalist, convinced the First General Council at Jerusalem to uphold his viewpoint that restrictive Jewish practices would hold back the advance of the Christian Church.

Even Peter agreed with this, but Paul discovered that Peter reneged on this when accosted by the more conservative Jewish-Christians. So, Paul publicly berated him, as his actions and that of the others were upsetting the communities in the smaller, younger churches in the Galatian province. The letter to the Galatians was Paul's way of re-assuring the Galatians of the freedom of all Christians to be forward-looking.

Luke's rendering of The Lord's Prayer is shorter than Matthew's, but the central petition of both versions is "Thy kingdom come". Peter, Paul and the other apostles all worked towards this end. They understood fully that when praying for the Kingdom to come, one enters into God's plan, and God's business becomes one's concern too.