In this letter, Paul is working quickly to put out the heretical fire that has sparked in the Galatian churches. False teachers called Judaizers have rolled into the region just after he and Barnabas hit the road on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:13-14:23).
These men have infiltrated the Galatians and perverted the Gospel of grace, telling those who are not ethnically Jewish that they must first become Jews in order to follow Jesus (Gal 1:6-7; 2:4).
But Paul tells the Galatians that he's seen this before. And you'll never guess who it was. Peter. Yup, THAT Peter. The Apostle Peter. It happened at the church in Antioch, Syria.
This is the church that God used to send Paul and Barnabas on that very first missionary expedition (Acts 13:2-3). This is also the same place where Jesus' followers earned the nickname "Christians" (Acts 11:26).
The "Gentile Problem" first happened here because the church was made up of both Jews and non-Jews. Persecution that followed Stephen's murder forced the Jewish followers of Christ to leave Jerusalem and move to places like Antioch (Acts 11:19).
Luke tells us that thanks to God's use of men like Barnabas in telling folks about Jesus, a boatload of Gentiles also came to faith (Acts 11:21, 24). The First Church of Antioch was a marvelous mixed up mess of people from all ethnic groups.
It's this context that provides fertile ground for racial discrimination.
This is the scene in Antioch when Pete hits town. At first things are great. He's hanging out with anyone and everyone in the church. Paul tells us that Peter was living "like a Gentile" despite being ethnically Jewish (v14). The walls have come down.
But things change when "certain men came from James" (Gal 2:11). When they showed up, Pete freaked out and became very worried about his reputation (Gal 2:12).
He suddenly ditched his Gentile friends and only hung with the boys from Jerusalem (Gal 2:13). If this wasn't bad enough, Pete's behavior impacted everybody else, including Barnabas.
At some point, Paul puts his foot down. "I opposed him (Peter) to his face" (Gal 2:11). He got up in Pete's grill. He didn't try to work through his friends behind the scenes. He confronted him directly and lovingly. Face to face.
The Apostle Paul "saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the Gospel" (v14). The ESV does a solid job translating the original text, but there's an interesting nuance in the Greek.
Paul uses the verb ορθοποδεω/orthopodeo. Looks familiar, doesn't it? It's where we get our term "orthopedic." It's a compound word meaning "straight" (ορθο-/ortho-) "walking” (-ποδεω/-podeo).
Paul saw that Pete and those he influenced were no longer walking straight in regard to the Gospel. They had veered off course. They needed a course correction.
You could say that they had begun to limp badly in their walk with Christ. They needed orthopedic surgery. God prompts Paul to provide the treatment needed so they could walk straight once again.
This results in a showdown between the two apostles. Paul confronts "Cephas before them all" (v14). Chances are he had tried to talk to him privately, following Jesus' instructions in Matthew 18:15-20.
Paul most certainly followed that up by taking a couple of witnesses with him for a second private meeting. These guys knew each other. They had spent two weeks together at some point (Gal 1:18).
Here he describes the resulting confrontation before the entire church. This is the kind of meeting Paul tells Timothy about. "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear" (1Tim 5:20).
Calvin wrote that private sin should be dealt with privately and public sin rebuked publicly. That's exactly what happened here.
Because Pete's sin became such a divisive cancer in the First Community Church of Antioch, Paul needed to handle it very publicly. That way everyone would know this was wrong.
In front of the entire church, Paul cuts the chase with Peter. "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (v14). Dude, you're Jewish. You clearly understand the truth of the Gospel and the freedom you have in Jesus by living like a non-Jew.
That's because Pete understood that Jesus completely fulfilled all of the requirements of the Law. Yet, once the boys hit town from Jerusalem, he was forcing "Gentiles to live like Jews." What's up with that?!?!
This is a reminder of a couple of incredibly important points. First of all, walking straight according to the truth of Jesus' Gospel is NOT about keeping a list of rules and forcing others to do the same.
It's interesting that, in essence, Paul is rebuking Peter for breaking the rule of establishing unnecessary rules. Here's the deal, Jesus kept the rules that we couldn’t and wouldn't keep.
Second, this demonstrates the importance of protecting the purity of Christ's Gospel of grace. He did the work. He did the heavy lifting.
Because of what He did in His life and on the Cross, we have access to His righteousness. He takes our sin. We get His sinless perfection.
Luther called it the Great Exchange (2Cor 5:21). To try an add our own good works to the formula ruins the math. As Tullian Tchividjian consistently says, "Jesus plus nothing equals everything." Paul knew that Pete's expectation of Jewish rule-following by Gentile believers was bad math.
Finally, we see godly and loving confrontation. Paul would have loved nothing better than to avoid such a nasty scene in front of the entire church. But it was vitally necessary.
His friend needed correction. He did this out of his love for Pete. He did this out of love for God.
When it comes to the Gospel, we are to walk straight.
©2012
Jay Jennings
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