True Christianity 8
Gal 2:11-21 NKJV
11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;
12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!
18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
In these verses we get a glimpse of who these “false brethren” might have been or where they had come from.
When one of the pillars of the Jerusalem Church, the Apostle Peter came to visit the Church in Antioch, he enjoyed the freedom that the Gospel had brought to the Gentiles, and ate freely with his brethren in Christ.
This basically means that Peter visited and socialized freely with his Gentile brothers … leaving aside the Mosaic Law regarding foods, and mixing with non-Jews. It is worth noting that the Gentiles did not keep the Law with regards to meat preparation etc. And Peter along with all the other Jewish Christians at Antioch enjoyed the freedom the Gentiles did in Christ.
However, when a group of men, who were of the opinion that circumcision (Jewish culture, traditions and Law) was vital for salvation … who came from the Jerusalem Church where James was leading … everything changed.
Act 15:1-2 NKJV
1 And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
2 Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.
Act 15:4-5 NKJV
4 And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them.
5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
Here we see what the dispute was really about.
It must have been a very difficult thing for the Jews, who had been trained in the Old Covenant and its Law to change their entire way of thinking and living.
It probably seemed improbable that Almighty God would suddenly, after the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, no longer require such a strict adherence to the book of Moses.
Moses had been preached, taught and trained into the Jewish nature and culture : Act 15:21 NKJV
21 For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
The Pharisees, were a very strict sect within Judaism, many of who directly opposed Jesus during His ministry with the twelve Apostles. There were some, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, who had believed on the Name of Jesus and had been saved … however, their legalistic, Pharisaic training was still there … and they could not accept the fact that people did not need to become Jews, in order to be saved.
They held fast to the belief that anyone wanting to be saved had to be circumcised in order to enter into the nation and Covenant of Israel … and then they had to uphold and do everything in the Law of Moses.
This was not a little matter … remember, Antioch was the centre of Gentile Missions at the time.
There were others besides the Apostle Paul who were going out and evangelizing Gentile cities. After Paul and Barnabas split, Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus.
The leaders in the Antioch Church could not allow dissention and strife to cause division in the Church … so they withstood the teachers of the Law.
Now, it seems that after this entire incident, Peter and the local Jewish brethren had once again been influenced by these “false brethren”, teachers of Christ and the Law … and started observing Jewish customs when they arrived.
It seems that these “Law teachers” came to “Spy on the Church”, to take a report back to a group of Legalists in Jerusalem. It could not have been James, the head of the Church in Jerusalem, for he had offered the right hand of fellowship to Paul – so there must have arisen an entire group of “Christian Judaists” … those who believe in Jesus and hold to the Jewish Laws, customs and ceremonies.
Paul confronts Peter publicly, not in private, because Peter had fellowshipped with the Gentile Church publicly … now, he is shrinking back and practicing Jewish separatism again, because he was afraid of the Judaisers … perhaps remembering the contention he had caused by going to and eating with Cornelius:
Act 11:1-3 NKJV
1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him,
3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”
However, Peter’s actions affected all the other Jewish believers, even Barnabas.
It must have been a shock to the Gentile believers to see his hypocrisy.
Paul had no option but to confront the issue and deal with it publicly.
The issue of hypocrisy is not that one does not know the truth, that is deception.
Hypocrisy is when one knows the truth and behaves in another way to be accepted by people.
The word Hypocrite means “a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings motives (Definitions.net)
Synonyms for the word hypocrite are: Charlatan, fraud, phony, double-dealer, pretender, whited sepulchre.
So, Peter and the other Jewish Christians knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they behaved unrighteously towards the Gentile Christians because of what the Judaisers might think or say.
Paul brings the issue of double standards and mixed beliefs into the light so that the true Gospel can expose the deceptions trying to divide the Church …
Vs 14: You, Peter are a Jew by birth, have been living like and according to the Christian customs of a Gentile until these false brethren came to us … you have not been living according to Jewish custom and culture … why do you now change your behaviour …. And expect the Gentile believers to put on Jewish practices?
Vs 16: We, Jewish believers know, by experience that we are justified before God by faith in Jesus Christ … and not, ever by any works of the Law. Any works added to the salvation offered by Jesus Christ is a work of the flesh and is unacceptable to God. We, the Jews should and do know … that we are and were never justified by trying to keep and do the Law. We have been accepted and declared right with God because we have believed in Jesus Christ … not through any Law keeping.
Keeping in mind that Paul is speaking to Peter about the futility of trying to find righteousness with God by keeping the Jewish Commandments, he initiates a debate that the Judaizers have levelled against his Gospel; that Gentiles, who are without the Law are sinners. They continued with their line of thought, that it must then be obvious, that If Jesus Christ is commanding His followers to leave the Law and put their faith only in Him and His crucifixion, that He is a minister of sin.