Galatians 2:11-21 presents to us a very important scenario in the early church. We read in the passage how and why Paul confronted Peter. This short event gives to us so many lessons that we should learn as Christ-followers.
Without further ado, here are a few important things we can learn from this scenario.
When confrontations need to happen
The first thing we can see in the passage is that Paul, a latter apostle, rebuked Peter, the very apostle to whom the whole church was entrusted to. Why he did this is very important to understand.
Peter, one of the Lord Jesus' very own disciples, saw the Lord and walked with Him for some time. In John 21:15-19 we read that the Lord Himself entrusted the care of the flock to Peter. Paul, however, saw that Peter slipped away from the truth of the Gospel of Christ.
Paul noted that Peter used to eat with the Gentiles, but when Jews came he started acting in hypocrisy. The hypocrisy was so bad that some people, including Barnabas, got carried away.
This hypocrisy, coming from one of the very pillars of the early church, caused others to fall away. Paul, seeing this as a very big wrong, confronted Peter without shame and fear.
As a Christ-follower, we must be prepared to confront people for the sin and error of their ways, no matter who they are. We must not shy away from standing up for Christ, even in the face of leaders in error. Christ is above all, and we must choose to obey Him, not man.
When our faith is sidetracked
Now we must take a look at the scenario from Peter's perspective.
Have we ever experienced a time in our Christian life where we seemed to put God's word and His convictions on the backburner, for fear of criticism from people we want to reach out to? Perhaps, that's what Peter went through during this time.
There are times when our faith in God is challenged by our relationship with men. Some unbelieving friend comes along and our convictions get sidelined. Or some highly-opinionated person spends time with us and we suddenly feel ashamed to share the Gospel.
In Peter's case, some Jews came along and he started acting in hypocrisy for fear that they would criticize his relationship with the Gentiles. That is just so wrong.
Friends, let's not act that way. We should not let our faith in Christ be sidetracked by some person or group's opinion. God has the final say on all things - it's Him we should be pleasing.
When others stumble because of us
Now let's take a look at the scenario from the perspective of those who were affected by Peter's hypocrisy and Paul's response.
Galatians 2:13 tells us that the "rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with [Peter], so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy." We see two things here: the Jews were encouraged to act hypocritically, while the Gentiles were treated wrongly.
Peter's action caused others to stumble. The Jews were encouraged to think and act in un-Christlike ways towards the Gentiles. The Gentiles, on the other hand, were given the wrong picture of the Gospel and were discouraged from following Christ due to the wrong treatment given to them.
Paul's response, however, gives us a few important things to remember as well, foremost of which is the fact that when church leaders err, we must keep holding on to the truth of Christ.
And when we give effort to set things right, even risking our comforts for it, we shine a light for others to see.
While Peter caused others to stumble in this scenario, Paul helped others get back on track.
