Galatians 2:11-13 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.
This passage was part of a lesson that I taught for Sunday School last week. As I studied, I kept thinking about the fact that Paul called Peter a hypocrite. The APOSTLE PAUL called the APOSTEL PETER a hypocrite. Wow.
Most of us would rather be called just about anything else but a hypocrite. I sometimes hear that word applied too broadly. When someone falls, that does not make her a hypocrite. A hypocrite is an actor. Peter acted one way with one group, another way with another group. When he was with the gentile believers, he acted accepting. When the brothers from Jerusalem came, he totally changed his behavior.
Here was Peter, who came to visit the Christians in Antioch, Gentiles who had become believers in Jesus. Peter had been the first Apostle to share the wonderful news of salvation through faith in Jesus with Gentiles when God sent him to the home of the Roman Centurian Cornelius. He stood up to the other leaders in Jerusalem and defended the right of the Gentiles to be Christians without first being Jews. Now, he is visiting with Gentile brothers in Antioch, eating with them, fellowshipping with them, accepting them; until men from Jerusalem come, when he drew back from them.
Peter led others astray with him. Even Barnabas was involved. Barnabas had been one of the spiritual leaders of the church in Antioch (Acts 11:19-26), so his disobedience would have a tremendous influence on the others in the fellowship. He had actually been with Paul, preaching the gospel of faith to the gentiles, establishing the churches. This shows the great force of bad examples, especially the examples of great men and good men.
I imagined these scene at Cottonwood. Say a man came to visit with us, someone who was recognized as a leader among Christians, someone like Billy Graham. He comes and visits, we all are eating together, having a great time. Then, some men from the Southern Baptist Convention come and suddenly Billy Graham gets his plate and leaves us and goes to eat with them because we do not adhere to the convention standards and he questions if we are truly Christians. We would be very hurt and confused. That is the kind of situation that Paul saw. Then, even Barnabas followed Peter. Barnabas was one of their own. it would be as if our Pastor got his plate and joined the crowd with Billy Graham. We would be crushed. We would wonder what was wrong with us, if we truly were followers. Probably, some would be angry and leave, some would fall away.
I guess we often think of the power or peer pressure when dealing with “moral” issues, but this story shows the power of peers in a new light. The APOSTLE PETER, brave, bold, strong Peter, and BARNABAS, who was with Paul when he preached the gospel to the Gentile people and established churches among them were subject to it. These two men were lead astray by what other people thought. A whole new level of power of peers.
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