In the previous passage (Galatians: 2:1-10), Paul presented the gospel that he had preached to the Gentiles before the apostles in Jerusalem. He made clear that the law could not be used as a condition of salvation for the Gentiles but that Christ alone was sufficient for sinners and that the benefits of Christ are received through faith alone. The apostles wholeheartedly agreed with Paul and gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship for their ministry to the Gentiles.
In this passage, Paul recounts an incident in Antioch where he had to confront the apostle Peter because his conduct “was not in step with the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:14). The church in Antioch had a lot of Gentile believers in it, and Peter was there long enough to demonstrate that he had no scruples as a Jewish Christian with eating with Gentile Christians.
The happy fellowship changed when “certain men from James” came from Jerusalem to visit the church. Peter reached a point where he quit eating with the Gentiles, and the other Jewish Christians followed Peter, “so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy” (verse 13).
Paul said that Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles out of fear of the “circumcision party,” pointing to the issue centering around the ceremonial law of clean/unclean distinctions. Many Jewish Christians were still attending temple functions, and eating the foods of Gentiles or eating with an uncircumcised Gentile rendered you unclean.
Paul gives us no reasons why Peter feared these men; his concern was over the gospel. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law, so if Jewish believers wanted to observe temple functions that was a matter of Christian liberty, but it did not render them clean before God, and imposing the law on the Gentiles could give them a legal mindset and destroy their faith.
So, Paul points out to Peter that he had been living and eating in harmony with the Gentiles because they had faith in Christ but now acts as if the Gentiles are lacking something that the Jews have in order to be righteous before God, something more than Christ alone. Peter did not teach this error, but his behavior in Antioch was in step with the error rather than the gospel.
The story teaches us our dependence upon Christ for faithfulness. Peter was a devout, holy servant of Christ whom he loved dearly and who taught other Christians their hope was alone in the precious blood of Christ. His vision of Christ was blinded for a moment by the pride of his heritage, but it only takes a moment to begin a fall.
Jesus said, “You can do nothing apart from me,” and Peter had learned the truth of it. But fear of men can affect us in unexpected ways, and it proved a snare to Peter on this occasion. The strength to live by faith, to resist temptation, to bear affliction, and all other graces come from Christ alone. The conditions to live by Christ’s strength are the renouncing of our own strength and looking to him in faith at all times. Spiritual strength is not in resolutions but comes as “the love of Christ constrains me.”
The pull of hypocrisy is a devilish power. Peter acted contrary to what he believed wholeheartedly. He knew that Christ had not just been bound and slain but crucified, the most vile, cruel, and cursed kind of death, which he refused not but suffered for Peter. If we would honor Christ in practice, we must keep his sufferings for us ever in our hearts and in our thoughts.
Peter later wrote to Christians to be careful not to overestimate yourself: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” He followed that with a warning not to underestimate the devil: “Be soberminded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Peter’s error is a warning we are prone to pride and a reminder we need to learn from our sin. Martin Luther points out that the apostles had no less need than we have. They were sanctified and saved by the same one and the same way we are. “If Peter fell and rose again, then I may fall and rise again. Faint hearts and those with a tender conscience should make the most of examples like these, so they might understand what it means to pray, ‘Forgive me my debts,’ and ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’”
