The Plot Thickens~Galatians 2.11-13
11/25/2009 12:09:58 AM
Galatians # 7 in series
“But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.” Galatians 2.11-13, NLT
Hello. . .
Well, we might have thought that the whole Jew/Gentile thing got hammered out while Paul was in Jerusalem. . . not so. Again, word got around. . . this time, Peter’s reputation was on the line--his behavior was hypocritical, and Paul called him on it.
Dr. Luke described community life among the new believers-(Acts 2)- The young church came together to worship God, and then stayed together for a ‘love feast’. I guess this is when Christians got the whole potluck thing started; they brought what they had and shared it with one another. There was only one problem: to be, or not to be----kosher, that is. You see, once the Judaizers imposed the law on the new Jewish Christians, this became a problem again. Before Christ, a Jew would never dine with a Gentile—why, it was unthinkable! ‘A strict Jew was forbidden even to do business with a Gentile; he must not go on a journey with a Gentile; he must neither give hospitality to, nor accept hospitality from, a Gentile.’1
Apparently, the Law-bound had gotten to Peter, and he stopped eating with the Gentiles. Paul could not and would not abide his hypocrisy.
Now this is interesting on several points—the writers of Scripture could easily have left this unsavory information out of the narrative, but they did not back away from truth. Paul writes of this incident to show how the struggles of Jew and Gentile to come to terms with each other affected the spread of the Gospel in its early days. Paul is unafraid of showing the ‘less than perfect side’ of the apostles. Paul goes ‘toward the conflict’ rather than acting like it isn’t there. He illustrates that unity might often involve compromise, but it must never be a compromise over core Christian values.
As for Peter—impetuous, headstrong Peter—he stopped eating with the Gentiles out of fear of what ‘the others’ would think. He let them rob him of his new freedom in Christ.
‘Lessons for us? I think so—Let’s move toward conflict resolution, especially when people of faith are concerned. Ignoring issues will not make them go away, it only increases the likelihood of damaging the cause of Christ. When the ‘plot thickens’, let’s clarify things with Scripture, not someone’s made-up rules.
Thank you, Lord, for Paul’s writing to the Galatians, and that it has much for us to learn some 2,000 years later. . .
Upward, Friends.
1) William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians