Galatians 2:11–14 (ESV) — 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to
his face, because he stood condemned. 12 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. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that
even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 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?”
NOTE: There are a
lot of reasons for Peter to act as he did without necessarily intending to harm
the central truths of the gospel. The problem is that as a leader our actions
are always being interpreted by others. In this case, Peter's graciousness to his
weaker brothers was not a sufficient reason for him to act as he did. And maybe
Peter was unaware of his actions. He certainly had no problem eating with
Gentiles. So there is a limit to how we should treat the weaker brother, if
they were weaker brothers and not false brothers. When the actions in total
violate fundamental doctrinal truths, then the weaker brothers need to be
corrected. It is not wrong to eat with Jewish brothers separately, but
apparently Peter was only eating separately with them once they showed up. This
becomes a critical question, did Jesus mean to require persons to become Jews
first before believing in his death and resurrection, or was the gospel offered
freely to all who would believe? Every time the issue has been clearly laid
out, the answer is that the gospel is free. There are no works required before
or after to earn our salvation. Jewish oral laws, such as separation during
eating, do not apply. Technically, some of those laws never applied.
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