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Today's Pathway: Galatians 2:14-15 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 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? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Yesterday Paul recounted an incident in Antioch when Peter behaved in a hypocritical fashion by refusing to eat with his Gentile brethren because some legalistic Jews from the church in Jerusalem did not approve. Because of Peter's poor decision, numerous Jews in the Antioch church, including Barnabas, also stopped fellowshipping with these Gentile Christians. David Guzik sets the scene this way:

"The Judaizers said loud and clear, 'You can only be right with God if you put yourself under the demands of the Law of Moses. You must be circumcised. You must eat a kosher diet. You must observe the feasts and rituals. You must do nothing that would imply partnership with someone who is not under the Law of Moses. This is the only way to receive the salvation of Jesus.' That message made Paul say, 'I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel'. What a scene this must have been! There they were, at the Antioch Christian potluck. The Gentile Christians had just been asked to leave, or were told to sit in their own section away from the real Christians. They also weren't allowed to share the same food that the 'real' Christians ate. Peter—the honored guest—went along with all this. Barnabas—the man who led many of the Gentiles to Jesus—went along with all this. The rest of the Jews in the church at Antioch went along with all this. But Paul would not stand for it, because this was a public affront to the Gentile Christians and because it was a public denial of the truth of the gospel."

Paul now writes about his response to Peter. He opens by pointing out that Peter and those following him were not making their decisions based upon truth, specifically the truth of the Gospel. Paul states in verse 13 that these men were behaving in a hypocritical fashion. In other words, they knew the truth, but they were not obeying the truth. We all have heard that "ignorance of the law is no excuse", but to willfully bow to the pressure of others and walk contrary to the truth that is clearly understood is wicked indeed, and this is what Peter is doing. And perhaps even more tragically, the truth he is abandoning deals with the very doctrine of salvation itself. Peter, Barnabas, and probably the rest of these Jews in Antioch are born-again believers, but their actions are teaching the unbelieving Gentiles in Antioch that salvation is not simply by grace through faith, but that the "work" of conforming to the Mosaic Law is also a requirement. Thus, Paul needs to deal with Peter, and because of the public nature of Peter's actions he needs to deal with him in a public manner, so he speaks to him "before them all". Peter was a very influential man among the early Christians, and since he had publicly led them astray it was vital that Paul publicly bring them back to proper belief and practice.

He opens with a question: "If you (Peter) are a Jew, but you do not require yourself to follow the dictates of the Mosaic Law, why would you force ("compel") a Gentile, who was never under the Mosaic Law in the first place, to now follow it?" Remember that Peter had already gone to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, and eaten with him (Acts 11:3), so Peter was not putting himself under the Law in his daily lifestyle. The terminology that Paul uses in verse 15 is interesting. He contrasts Jews and Gentiles by referring to Gentiles as "sinners". Paul obviously understood that all men are sinners. However, he also knew that the Jews tended to view themselves as being righteous because of their adherence to the Law, and the Gentiles, because they had not received the Mosaic Law, as sinners. But Paul is about to prove that the real "sinners" in this issue are not the Gentile believers, but the Judaizers. We will look at that tomorrow.