Day 2
Lisa Scheffler, author
If you’re a social media user, does this happen to you? Something pops up in your feed from a fellow Christian that seems so frustratingly wrong, you feel compelled to respond. Maybe you even take the time to type something out. Then your finger hovers over the “reply” button. Should you post your comment? Of course, depending on your personality, you might be too quick to fire off responses, or maybe you never say anything at all. What is the right approach?
You may not spend any time on social media but still struggle with when to speak and when to stay quiet. Maybe you’ve heard a sermon, read an article, or saw a Christian with some influence act in a way that you believe is not “in line with the truth of the gospel.” What do you do?
Knowing how to respond to these kinds of situations takes wisdom, discernment, and most of all love. After all, we’re family, and God’s family is literally forever. Paul himself insisted upon unity: “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Yet here in Galatians, Paul described a time that he publicly confronted Peter. Unity can’t be found if truth is not present.
Today we’ll consider what was so important that Paul called out a fellow apostle.
Read
Galatians 2:11-14
11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
What were the circumstances in Antioch that led to Paul confronting Peter?
Based on what we’ve studied so far in Galatians, what do you think Paul meant when he said that Peter and the other Jews were “not acting in line with the truth of the gospel”?
Reflect
As we’ve seen so far in Galatians, distorting the gospel is serious. Recall that Paul went so far as to say that anyone, even an angel or Paul himself, who preached a different gospel should be under God’s curse (Galatians 1:8). So when Peter, who had previously embraced Gentiles as brothers and sisters in Christ, separated himself from them because of pressure from some in Jerusalem, Paul was compelled to confront him publicly. Why publicly? Because he was leading others, including Barnabas astray (verse 13).
What Peter was doing was contrary to the gospel. It’s faith in Christ, not following the customs of the law that bring righteousness and turn strangers into siblings. By refusing to eat with Gentiles, and joining with the circumcision group in forcing Gentile converts to adopt the customs of the law, Peter was bringing confusion and division to the church and undoing the work Paul had been called to do.
Because it was common for the Lord’s Supper to be part of a larger, shared meal, Peter was likely keeping the church from taking the bread and the cup together, as one. He was being a hypocrite by proclaiming that Jesus was the long awaited Savior and Lord sent to all people, but then insisting that Gentiles follow Jewish customs before they could sit and dine at his table.
Either faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to bring people into the family of God, or it wasn’t. Treating Jewish Christians as redeemed and reconciled, but Gentile Christians as close-but-not-quite-there semi-converts was unacceptable. It would be like adopting a child into a family, but not really accepting them until they looked, thought, and acted exactly like your 0ther children. Are they really your child if you don’t treat them as such?
That’s not how God treats his family. He loves and welcomes all who come to him through Christ. And God doesn’t allow some of his children to treat others as second-class citizens of the Kingdom of God. As Paul wrote just a few lines earlier, God does not show favoritism (Galatians 2:6).
Because he was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and a leader in the early church, Peter’s behavior and speech influenced others. After all, that’s what it means to be a leader. But, in addition, he joined with Paul’s opponents in forcing the Gentiles to follow Jewish customs. As commentator Scot McKnight points out, “Peter, in effect, was destroying the gospel of Jesus Christ by demanding that the converts at Galatia become Jews. In such a situation, there was no gospel because the work of Christ had been eliminated (v. 21).”[1]
So what can we learn about Christian confrontation from this interaction? Notice that this was not a mere difference of opinion. Paul said Peter “stood condemned,” meaning that Peter was wrong in God’s eyes, not just Paul’s. What’s more, the stakes were high. People were being led away from the true gospel by Peter’s actions. His thinking had gotten twisted, and he was behaving in ways that misrepresented God’s offer of salvation through Christ and showed favoritism to one group over another. Others were following Peter’s lead, so his public actions merited a public response, rather than a private conversation.
There are some lessons here we can learn as we seek a unity based in truth and love in the family of God. If we encounter some public teaching or behavior that might influence others away from the gospel, we need to prayerfully consider how to proceed. Before we make our objections to someone public, let’s consider whether it merits a public confrontation. Is this a person of influence that others will follow? Is it a gospel-issue or a difference of opinion that Christians of good faith can have? Will it lead people astray, or is it an expression of Christianity that we can agree to disagree on?
Yet, on the flip side, if we do encounter someone who is leading people away from the gospel, or acting in a way that misrepresents God’s welcoming acceptance of all who trust in Christ, let’s not shrink away from speaking the truth as long as we are doing so out of love for God and others. If people are being told that they need something other than Jesus to be right with God, or they must meet some standard before we will welcome them into his family, we correct the error. It’s not about “winning” or being right, but ultimately, it’s about love — love for the person spreading the error, and love for the people being influenced.
Out of fear of others, Peter was setting a much smaller table than God desired. By his actions, he was restricting who could come, sit, and enjoy God’s presence and provision. But God’s table is big and he offers a seat to people from every tongue, tribe, and nation on earth. May our tables here on earth do the same.
[1] Scot McKnight, Galatians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 107.
Respond
Have you ever had a conflict with another believer because you felt like they were misrepresenting Jesus or the gospel? What did you do? Do you think it was a godly response? Is there a time that you wish you had said something but didn’t? Ask the Spirit for greater discernment.
Peter was responding to pressure from those around him to alter his speech and behavior. Are you ever pressured to do the same? How do you handle that? Pray about your response.
How can you welcome people who are different from you to your table? Ask the Spirit to provide you with opportunities.