It was a moment in which the flesh ruled, when scripture was displaced for culture and nonsense took over from common sense. It was a brief moment when primordial prejudice overthrew spiritual conviction.
It happened at Antioch, and this makes it very important. Antioch was the place where believers in Christ were first called “Christians.”
Peter was there. Paul was there, and many other believers who were mostly Gentiles. (A Gentiles was anyone who wasn’t a Jew).
The camaraderie was great. There was no schism of any sort.
Well at this time at Antioch, Peter, that great apostle was eating with the Gentiles. It was a hearty meal in great fellowship. Peter, who loved to talk, was making that place lively for everyone.
The Gentiles were happy that they could have such a great fellowship with their Jewish counterparts. Before the Gospel came, the Jews were always turning up their noses at them. Jews considered all Gentiles unclean and wouldn’t eat with them, lest they be polluted. But all that discrimination had ended, they believed.
As they were eating, a messenger came to announce that a delegate of Jewish believers had just arrived from Jerusalem. These believers were from James, the guy who led the believers at Jerusalem. Peter knew these people. They still preached circumcision as a prerequisite to salvation. They didn’t associate with Gentiles. Although they were believers, they still held on jealously to the relics of their culture, even those not compatible with the Gospel.
You see, as bold as Peter appeared to be, he didn’t like criticism. He wanted to be liked by his countrymen at the expense of the truth. With all his experience in the dispensation of the Gospel, these disconcerting words were written about him:
“For before the coming of certain people from James, he was in the habit of eating with Gentile Christians, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof from them, because he was AFRAID of the circumcision party.” Galatians 2:12.
Peter was afraid of what these people would say. He displayed a very sickening kind of hypocrisy.
To make matters worse, the other Jews who were present imitated Peter. They began to act just like him. They also started to keep away from the Gentile believers. The plague was spreading, and it was the supposedly healthiest man that was spreading it.
Well, Paul would have none of that. Though he was a Jew, he understood the negative implications of this display of hypocrisy. He stood up to Peter and rebuked him in the presence of the others.
But I want to focus today on one thing Paul said. “I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel…” (Galatians 2:14).
He was referring primarily to Peter, and then the other Jewish believers who imitated him. Apostle Peter, the man who was the first to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in the power of the Holy Spirit…who knew Christ like few others did, was not walking according to the truth of the Gospel at that moment.
Like I said earlier, it was a moment in which the flesh ruled, when scripture was displaced for culture …
Peter walked as a mere man, not as a spiritual man. He offended innocent men because he feared ignorant men. If Paul hadn’t addressed the issue immediately, Peter would have subverted the very essence of the Gospel and built again the ‘middle wall of partition’ that Jesus had broken down.
It is easy to say sanctimoniously, “Even you, Peter!” But what of me and you. We sometimes don’t acknowledge the vestiges of unscriptural attitudes that are still rearing their heads from time to time in our lives. In moments of anger or fear, or while hiding behind the anonymity that the computer offers, professing Christians have used racist and offensive words against their brethren. They have belittled their contributions just because they belong to another race, or denomination, or country, or gender.
What can we learn from this?
One: even the men who have known God for a long time can make mistakes. Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I imitate Christ.’ If you are following a man, follow him as long as he follows Christ. When they leave the path, keep going after Christ. Peter was a preacher of the Gospel, yet didn’t walk according to the truth of the Gospel. That’s food for thought!
Two, even though ‘Old things are passed away’ for us who are new creatures, we must realize that ‘old things’ keep trying to come back. Cultural prejudices, old habits, addiction and negative patterns of speech and thoughts are creeping forces that always try to resurrect again. Never let them show up again. Discrimination, racism, tribalism keep staging comebacks in the lives of many Christians, and they keep justifying them. Walk in the spirit so that you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Three, the gospel is uncompromisingly inclusive. “For He Himself is our peace, He is the one who has made us both [Jews and Gentiles] into one body and has broken down the barrier that kept us apart;” Ephesians 2:14 (Williams). “He has made of one blood every nation…” Acts 17:26. Any ‘gospel’ that is racist or tribalistic is devilish. All attitudes that are racist or tribalistic are inspired by the devil.
