Dwell in the Word: Galatians 2:1-14

Consider these questions as you dwell in Galatians 2:1-14:

1. What was the primary issue occurring in Galatia that Paul addressed, and why was it significant in the context of spreading the Gospel?

2. How did Peter's actions demonstrate a form of hypocrisy, and why did Paul confront him about it?

3. Despite the specific cultural issue of circumcision not being prevalent today, what broader lesson about integrity and consistency in faith can we learn from Paul's confrontation with Peter?

Transcript:

So, we are getting into the heart of the matter here, aren't we? The big issue that is happening in Galatia is that they are mixing the Gospel of God's grace with the requirement of circumcision for those Greeks who would not have been circumcised on the eighth day, like the Hebrew people. Now, for us, we don't think much about this because it isn't a part of our culture. But imagine being Paul, going to the Greek people, to the Gentile people, and telling them that they need to have faith and trust in Christ, and they come to faith and trust in Christ, and then he tells them what that they have to do this thing. Imagine the reaction that all these Greek Gentile men would have had. When it all comes down, though, the point that Paul is making is that we're not relying on circumcision to be saved. We're relying on faith in Jesus Christ. That was the big deal. And so, we see here that when they were together with some people, they didn't even require that Titus, who was uncircumcised, be circumcised. And so everything seemed to be good. They met together. Yeah, everything was all fine. 

They were just happy that the Gospel was going to the Gentiles. They were going to be in charge of taking the Gospel to the Hebrew folks. And, well, Paul and Barnabas and Titus, they were going to take the Gospel to the Greeks. Everything seemed to be good. And notice the names that are brought in here. We have Peter, we have John, we have James, all these, as Paul says, who are pillars in the church. And they saw that this grace had been given to Paul. So, they give him the right-hand of fellowship to not only Paul, but to Barnabas. Go out, proclaim the gospel to the uncircumcised. We'll take care of those who have been circumcised. You take care of those who haven't. The only condition that they had, and we see this here in verse 10, Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. In other words, take the gospel to everybody, help the poor. Both those going to the Hebrew people, to the circumcised and to the Gentiles, the uncircumcised were doing this. But then we see that there was an issue. You see Peter came to Antioch. 

Well, what happened was, he was eating with the Gentiles, he was eating the food that would have been considered unclean when he was around the Gentiles. But when certain people came, he says they're from James, they must have been those who were people, those who were circumcised, those who were following the law, he withdrew from eating that food. And yeah, he separated himself, it says. Why was that? Well, Paul says that he was fearing the circumcision part. He was fearing those who were saying that, Yes, you can have faith in Christ, but you also need to be circumcised, the people who were mixing the law with faith in Christ. And so not only do we see that all the other people around acted hypocritically, they ate the food, they acted like, Hey, everything was fine with the Gentiles, but when these people that they were afraid of showed up, then suddenly they started eating differently. They withdrew from being around the Gentile people. And notice what Paul says, even Barnabas, Barnabas, who had been around Gentiles for all this time doing ministry, even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. This is just a disaster, really, right? 

Hypocrisy, confusion, all of this going on. But we see that Paul, and we saw this up in verse 11, but Paul had the courage to oppose Peter to his face. And notice what he says in verse 11, Because he stood condemned, he was being a hypocrite. This was obvious. And so, he calls him out. If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force a Gentiles to live like a Jew? Peter didn't want to be seen as living like Gentile, but Paul let everybody know. He called him to the carpet. As we prepare to move on to the next part, we see Paul making this point about being justified by faith. That's what we're going to look at on Friday. But what can we take away from this portion of what Paul is talking about? We're not too concerned about this. This is not something that is an issue in our culture regarding people coming to the gospel and requiring this of them. We would never do that. But one thing that is always bad is when we act one way around one group of people and act another way around another group. 

Hypocrisy is a bad thing. We see that this was a reality, even for someone, a pillar of the church like Peter. And so, we want to, in all matters, particularly in matters of faith and in witnessing to others, we want to act with integrity and not act in a Hippocratic way. So, may we be a people of God who does what we say we're going to do? May we be people who are consistent and live our lives in such a way that people can see that we trust in Christ and we trust in what He has done for us. And we don't... We are not afraid to have these convictions. So, may we be a people who does what they say. May we do that today and every day.