This week, we are looking at a
section of a letter that is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible called
the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we looked on as Paul shared with the members of the churches at Galatia the
story a major conflict that occurred between himself and Peter, who was the
undisputed leader of the twelve closest followers of Jesus and the early
church. This conflict was so heated that Paul states that Peter stood
condemned. In other words, Peter was convicted of wrongdoing.
When Peter first came to visit
Paul and the church at Antioch, he was mixing and mingling with the members of
the church at Antioch, which was primarily composed of Gentiles. And as
Gentiles, these followers of Jesus did not follow the Jewish dietary laws; they
enjoyed BBQ ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. And Peter was going to their
church dinners and eating some pulled pork and BBQ with them.
However, things changed when some Jewish followers of
Jesus from the church at Jerusalem came to Antioch to visit. Paul explains that
Peter began to withdrawal and hold himself aloof. Peter separated himself from
the Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped mixing and mingling with the
Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped attending the BBQ’s at the church.
Instead Peter only hung out with fellow Jewish followers of Jesus at their BBQ
and only ate Hebrew national hot dogs.
Since the Jewish followers of Jesus viewed themselves as
being superior to the Gentile followers of Jesus at Antioch, they would not
hang out with the Gentile followers of Jesus. And Peter, who did not want to
get on the wrong side of his fellow Jewish followers of Jesus, changed his
behavior so as to no longer hang around the Gentile followers of Jesus. Paul
explained that Peter’s change of behavior, combined with the influence that he
had as a leader, resulted in every other Jewish follower of Jesus at Antioch
following his example. Paul explains that the rest of the Jews joined him in
hypocrisy.
We talked about the reality that previously, Peter
clearly and accurately communicated and advocated for a gospel centered
lifestyle that was based on faith and that strove to follow the message and
teachings of Jesus. Previously, Peter had no problem hanging out with Gentile
followers of Jesus who were different in their customs as a result of being
from a different ethnic and racial background.
But now, Peter was clearly communicating and advocating a
religious centered lifestyle that was based on faith in Jesus plus keeping a
list of rules in order to be right with Jesus. Now, Peter was clearly
distancing himself from other races so as to hang out solely with those who
were of the same race and who had the same customs. Today, we see Paul reveal
how he responded to Peter in Galatians 2:14:
But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence
of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the
Jews, how is it that you compel
the Gentiles to live like Jews?
When Paul saw that Peter was not being straight with the
gospel, when Paul saw that Peter was beginning to distort the message of the
gospel in a way that resulted in a religious centered life instead of a gospel
centered life, Paul responded by confronting the undisputed leader of the
Christian movement in front of the entire church.
You see, this was not an open handed issue that was open
for debate. Instead this was a closed handed issue regarding the essence of the
message of the gospel. Is the gospel faith in what God had done through Jesus
regardless of race? Or is the gospel faith in Jesus plus works for Jesus as a
result of being a part of the Jewish race?
Is the gospel open to every race? Or do other races first
have to become like the Jewish race before they can be a part of the community
of faith? And since Peter’s distortion of how the gospel was to be lived out
had impacted the entire church, Peter needed to be confronted in front of the
entire church. Paul confronted Peter about not being straight with the gospel
by asking him a question in front of the entire church.
This question, if communicated in the language we use in
our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Peter, if you,
being a Jew who grew up as a religious person trying to follow a list of rules
to be right with God, but now have embraced a life that is freed from religion
and instead follows Jesus by faith, if that is who you are, then why are you
trying to make these non Jewish people, who are trying to follow Jesus by
faith, live a life where they have to become Jewish and follows a list of
religious rules in order to be right with God? Peter, why are you trying to
make these people follow a list of religious rules that you yourself have said
do not need to be followed in order to be right with God?”
You see the issue for Paul then led him to confront Peter
in front of the entire church at Antioch was that his behavior was not lining
up with what he said he believed and had been proclaiming. There are things
that we believe about the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and
those beliefs should drives us to behave in a gospel centered way.
Here, however, Peter’s behavior was clearly contradicting
what he said he believed about the gospel. And because of that reality, Paul
called Peter out in front of the entire church because of the disconnect
between his beliefs and his behavior when it came to how he was engaging the
different races with the gospel. While Paul does not tell us how Peter responded,
we know from the subsequent church council that is recorded for us in Acts
15:3-30, that Peter responded to Paul’s confrontation and question by being
straight with the truth of the message of the gospel and a gospel centered
life.
You see, Paul shared what happened with the members of
the churches of Galatia not to focus solely on what Peter had done. The reason
why Paul shared what happened was to bring the focus on what the members of the
churches of Galatia were doing, because the members of the churches of Galatia
were acting just like Peter had acted in Antioch. Paul wanted to use the what
happened with his confrontation with Peter to address the similar error that
was occurring in Galatia.
Friday, we will see Paul transition from sharing what
happened to the addressing the error that the churches were making and reveal
for us a timeless truth when it comes to the gospel and race....
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