Into the Flip Side

Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” ESV



I have been researching this verse and the ones to follow alot lately. Cephas (Peter) was fully aware of what Paul had been called to do, and not only that, he was on board. Peter knew that just as he was called to preach the good news to the Jews, so too was Paul called to preach to the gentiles (see Galatians 2:7-9). Peter along with some of the other disciples told Paul that he was one of them and that they supported his calling and what he was doing by preaching the good news to the gentiles (this is a huge deal, especially if you were a Jew or Gentile back then).



So the good news that the gentiles were preached was faith alone, you don't need to eat certain foods or not eat certain foods, you don't need to be circumcised, you don't have to adhere to the Jewish calendar, none of that is a requirment for salvation. You needed to have faith in Christ alone and you were/are redeemed. In fact the same was and is true for Jews (for everyone) today.

Peter was cool with this and was in Antioch hanging with the gentiles and then all of the sudden some of the other Jews showed up and Peter started to withdrawal from the gentiles in fear of the "circumcision party" (I would be afraid of a group of men called the circumcision party also...just kidding). Presumably, they came along and started to challenge the idea that the Jews and Gentiles were equal under God and started adding requirements (in their case circumcision) to what was needed to be redeemed. These guys were so influential that they not only were influencing Peter to withdraw from the gentiles but they had also effected Barnabas who went with Paul on the mission to Galatia in the first place.

I having been really thinking about this lately. I wonder if I am guilty of this? See the Jews were working with thousands of years of oral tradition here, passed all the way down from God's commands to Abram. Then Christ had come in fulfillment of the scriptures and things were a changing.

I wonder if I have started to add to faith alone? I wonder if I have started to withdraw myself from certain people for sinful reasons.

I know we live in crazy times, and humans (including me) have become very good at showing their humanness. It can be confusing to know what to believe or where to start. We divide over simply things and loose focus that to be redeemed, to be children of God, all we have to do is have faith in Christ Jesus, He who came, died, was resurrected, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Not because I say so, or the TV says so, or anyone on earth says so, but because God says so. Having faith in God is not taking my word for it, or Paul's or Peter's, it is taking God's word for it.

smell that spray:)