God’s Word for You

Galatians 2:11-13 The mistake

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, June 24, 2024

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those from the circumcision group. 13 And then other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

Cephas is the other name of Peter. Antioch is the name of a couple of places in the Bible, but this one is the Antioch in Syria, north of Galilee. The scene is this: Up in Antioch, away from Jerusalem but in a large Christian community with many Jews and many Gentiles, the believers enjoyed fellowship together and often ate in one another’s homes. Peter did this and it was well-known that the Apostle ate with Gentiles on many occasions. But then “certain people from James” came north. They were not sent by James, but came from that congregation; James was their pastor. They were influential people with names everyone knew. Had they once been Pharisees? Had they once been Jews who were healed by the hands and words of Jesus? We don’t know exactly who they were, but even Peter was a little intimidated by them. In his heart, Peter was still the same fisherman from “up north” who was not like many of the other more influential Jews. He may have faced arguments that included words such as, “We heard and followed Jesus, too, and we also know Moses and the law!” It was easier not to have the argument about the Gentiles than to try to explain himself. Peter stopped going into the Gentile homes. The very act of distancing himself from the Gentiles was, for Peter, a sin. Why?

There are some questions to be asked here about the chronology. Peter saw three visions from God about eating with Gentiles in Acts 10:9-16. Each time, a large piece of cloth (an ὀθόνη, perhaps the sail of a ship) was let down from heaven by its corners, and in it “were all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles of the earth, and birds of the sky” (Acts 10:12). That is to say, all sorts of animals that had been forbidden by the law of Moses (Leviticus 11; Numbers 14) were no longer forbidden. And the Holy Spirit himself told Peter that this meant that they were not only “not forbidden,” but they were “made clean” by God (Acts 11:9). Therefore a Jew could eat with a Gentile without hesitating at all about what food was served; there was no longer any difference between the food allowed to the Jews and any food eaten by Gentiles.

When did Peter have this vision? If Peter had not yet had this vision, why would Paul have opposed him in Antioch, and why would Peter have accepted Paul’s correction? Wouldn’t Peter have stood up to Paul? But if Peter had already had this vision, why would he have fallen into this strange sin in Antioch, so that Paul had to come to him and correct him to his face? The answer to this second scenario, which is obviously the correct chronology, is that Peter fell back into his old ways. It was a sin of weakness; a sin that came from Peter not thinking carefully about what he was doing, as a leader of the church. “Sins of weakness are those that occur from a lack of deliberation and proper dominion over sin” (Hoenecke). The difference between such an unintentional sin in a believer and in an unbeliever is that the unbeliever is not covered by the grace of God because he has rejected Christ, and so even such a minor thing as a sin of omission or an unintentional sin is done to his damnation in eternity. But when a sin of ignorance or weakness like this comes from someone who is reborn in faith and lives a life of faith but who stumbles, it is forgiven for Jesus’ sake. “God overlooks them (these sins) because the person is pleasing to God and because repentance immediately follows” (Quenstedt).

The admittance of Gentiles into God’s family “was something new and different in the years immediately after Pentecost. (This is) shown by the surprise of the apostles and the earliest beleivers” (Nass). The whole church does not arrive at perfect unity and remain there in its doctrine, because the church is made up of sinful men and women who come to faith, mature in their faith, and are called home to heaven. They are followed by other sinners who come to faith, mature in that faith, and are called home, and so on. This cavalcade of the righteous will always include debates and disputes about the correct teachings of the Bible, debates and disputes that can only be settled when the Holy Scriptures themselves are accepted as the only governing rule of faith. When anything is set alongside Scripture, or even replaces Scripture, then man has got his fingers into God’s holy will, and the clay that the Potter is fashioning will be ruined just a surely as when a child runs to potter’s wheel of his father and tries to “help,” resulting in a wet, useless mess that cannot be repaired but only remade (Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 18:4; Romans 9:21). “The truly devout,” teaches Professor Gerhard, “have not yet been renewed perfectly. Rather, some remnants of the flesh remain in them. Therefore they do not attain the exact and perfect knowledge of the mysteries of faith. In some matters they dream and stagger. In the reborn, the flesh still battles against the Spirit” (On the Church §231, p. 485).

It is a fine point, but was Peter’s sin “in ignorance and not in cunning,” or was it for some other reason? Luther maintains that it was not so much ignorance as fear, and this seems to fit the text much better. Fear causes leaders to buckle sometimes. Peter’s withdrawal from the Gentiles made it seem as if the Jewish ways were indeed necessary, and that the Gentile ways (which had been proclaimed to be free under Christ) were now once again forbidden. This was a terrible blow to the poor Gentiles, who were struggling over just what was necessary for their faith. Should we listen to what Peter preached, or should we watch what Peter now does? Peter, intimidated and afraid, withdrew. If this had been a case of ignorance, especially of someone other than Peter, Paul might have ignored it altogether, as Boaz ignored the minor mistakes the Moabite woman made gleaning in his fields (Ruth 2:16). But Peter was a public figure, and one of the pillars of the church.

He needed to be corrected in public. God give us the strength and insight of Daniel, to speak “with wisdom and tact” (Daniel 2:14). To take a stand for the will of God is the duty of every Christian, but not every Christian is always ready, able, or willing to do so. “Be alert. Stand firm in your faith. Be manly. Be strong. Do everything in love.”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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