Truth Must Be Practiced As Well As Preached
TRUTH MUST BE PRACTICED AS WELL AS PREACHED
GALATIANS 2:11-13
The truth of the gospel was so crucial that Paul was prepared to have a public confrontation with Peter over it.
The previous section ended on what was a happy note of general agreement and mutual acceptance, with the sense that in the church of God some have a specific vocation: Peter to preach to Jews, Paul to carry the good news to the Gentiles, and no one should refuse recognition of another’s God-entrusted work. Unhappily then (as sometimes now) this simple solution broke down.
The issue came to a head at Antioch, and we have the sad picture of “Paul against Peter.” The change of location, from Jerusalem to Antioch, may well explain the confrontation and the debate which followed, just as Christian cooperation in certain missionary areas is often sadly absent in situations where denominational loyalties are historically deep-seated.
The place of Antioch in early Christianity is important. It was “a bastion of Hellenism in the Syriac lands … the inevitable meeting point of the two worlds” (Dix), and in the time of the Maccabees many of the Jews of Jerusalem showed their adoption of Greek ways by becoming honorary citizens of Antioch. It is easy to imagine, then, how a liberal, tolerant spirit prevailed there; and Peter (called here by his Aramaic name Cephas) at first fell in with the practice of sharing a common table with Christian Gentiles.
The arrival of a party of Judaizers, whose “platform” is succinctly stated in Acts 15:1, soon changed this happy association. Peter, motivated by fear and unsure of his convictions, gave up table fellowship with his fellow believers on the ground that they were Gentiles and so (from the official rabbinic standpoint) “unclean” in themselves and “contaminating” to others. Nor did this action go unnoticed by others (2:13).
Notes 2:11: Paul took the initiative in openly rebuking Peter. The reason for this forthright decision will be seen later. 2:12: literally, “he cut himself off,” a possible pun = “he played the Pharisee,” who were self-styled “separated ones,” anxious to preserve their ritual purity. Paul may later (5:12) revert to this play on words.