“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” (Galatians 2:11-14 ESV)
Questions:
• What is the overall lesson in this for us today?
• What was the wrong that Cephas (Peter) did?
• What is the truth of the gospel that Paul taught?
• How can this last paragraph be applied to our lives today?
From what I have read, “Cephas” was the apostle Peter. And if we might recall, the Lord previously spoke to Peter in a series of three visions in which the Lord was teaching him that “What God has made clean,” he was not to “call common.” And the lesson that he was to learn from that was that God shows no partiality, “but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” And this was to let Peter know that God had accepted the Gentiles who believed in Jesus and had granted them repentance that leads to life. (see Acts 10:1-48 and Acts 11:1-18)
But see here the requirements of God for those who are acceptable to God as his chosen people, his beloved. They are all who fear (honor, obey) the Lord and who are doing (obeying) what is right in the eyes of the Lord, and who are no longer walking in sin. All who still walk in sin do not know God.
[Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; John 10:27-30; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-21; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
So, he was to receive the Gentile believers in Jesus Christ as his brothers and sisters in the Lord and as no different from the Jews who had believed in Jesus. For God had now made one man out of the two through faith in Jesus Christ. Now there was no longer to be a separation between Jew and Gentile, but we were to be regarded as one body, one people, one nation under God, one chosen people in place of the two. So Gentile believers are fellow citizens with Jews who believe in Jesus. We are together one holy nation under God, not two separate people groups (Ephesians 2:11-22).
And Peter accepted that and he received the Gentile believers in Christ as equal to the Jewish believers in Christ. And he ministered to them and ate with them and became one with them in Christ Jesus. But then the Judaizers showed up. They were Jews of some amount of influence. And fearing their opinion or treatment of him, he then withdrew from eating with the Gentile Christians. And then other Jews followed his lead and did the same, and even Barnabas was led astray by the hypocrisy of all of them. And so Paul rebuked Peter to his face before them all, perhaps including the Judaizers.
So, why did Paul do that? Why did he potentially humiliate Peter in that way? Because Peter was setting a bad example for other Jewish believers in Christ to follow after, which was hypocritical. And all of them needed to be put on notice that this was wrong, and that they needed to correct the wrong. And why was it hypocritical? Because Peter behaved as though he believed one thing when he was with the Gentiles, but then he acted as though he believed the opposite of that when he was with the Judaizers. And it was wrong in how he treated the Gentile believers out of fear of the Judaizers.
So, what can we learn from this to apply to our lives today? We should not be hypocrites, right? We should not act one way with one group of people and another way with a different group of people. And we should not shun and reject one group of people we normally accept out of fear of the opinions and treatment of others who do not accept them. We should not be two-faced, bouncing back and forth in what we believe and in what we practice depending upon whom we are with and out of fear of the rejection and/or persecution of those we think might reject us.
And we should not do that to people who we say we care about and that we say are our friends and fellow Christians. We should not act one way when we are with them when certain other people are not around and then turn against them, and perhaps even speak evil against them when we are with a different group of people. We are to be who we are all the time no matter who we are with and never be ashamed of those we call our friends if others are around who do not regard those same people as their friends. We must be willing to be hated and rejected by some in order to love all the same.
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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