Paul Confronts Peter

A long table, crowded with friends. Bread being passed. Laughter. Then the door opens, some visitors come in, and one of the most famous people at the table quietly picks up his plate and moves away.

The church in Antioch is a mixed family of Jewish believers and Gentile believers. For a Jew in those days, eating with Gentiles was a big deal. Many Jewish people kept careful food laws and avoided sharing meals with non-Jews. But in Christ, the believers in Antioch were eating together, sharing their lives and their tables. Peter, the great apostle who had walked with Jesus, came to visit. And at first, he joined right in. Paul tells the story later, in a letter to the churches in Galatia, because the same question had come up there.

Before certain men came from James in Jerusalem, Paul writes, Peter ate with the Gentiles. But when those men arrived, Peter began to draw back and keep himself apart. Why? He was afraid of those who insisted Gentiles must be circumcised. And it spread. The other Jewish believers joined him in pretending. Even Barnabas, Paul's dear friend and partner, was carried away by it. Picture the Gentile believers watching from their side of the room. Yesterday they were family. Today they are being treated as if they were second-class. Nobody said a word. Until Paul did. “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”

Paul saw that they were not walking straight in line with the truth of the gospel. So he spoke to Peter in front of everyone. “If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” You've been living freely alongside Gentiles, Paul says. Now, by moving away, you are telling them they must become Jewish to be fully accepted. Then Paul explains what is really at stake. We are Jews by birth, he says, and yet we know a person is not made right with God by keeping the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. That is why we too put our trust in Christ. If we start building again the old wall we tore down, we are the ones in the wrong.

And then Paul speaks about himself in words that have become some of his most loved. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” The old Paul, who tried to earn God's favour, is gone. Now Jesus lives in him. And it all rests on love: the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So, Paul says, I will not set aside God's grace. “For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” If we could make ourselves right by rules, Jesus would not have needed to die.

Peter knew this lesson already. Years before, the book of Acts tells us, he had a vision on a rooftop in Joppa and was then sent to the house of a Roman centurion, Cornelius. Peter told them it was unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with, or visit, someone of another nation, but God had shown him not to call anyone unclean. And in the end, the quarrel in Antioch did not destroy their friendship. The second letter of Peter speaks warmly of our beloved brother Paul.

Paul confronts Peter. You'll find it in Galatians chapter two, verses eleven to twenty-one. A great apostle who gave in to fear, a friend who spoke the truth to his face, and a reminder that the table of Jesus is open to everyone who trusts him. So here is a question to carry with you. When someone is being left out, will you have the courage to speak up, kindly and honestly?