Home Recent Previous Series Phil's background Creation and science Miscellaneous Links Contact Phil

Church Abuse, Part 4

Peter

17th August 2013

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes about a disagreement between him and Peter. When two people disagree, at least one of them is wrong. This is as true of apostles as of anybody else. We'd like to think of these great men as being perfect, but they weren't. Although the scriptures the Holy Spirit inspired them to write are perfect, their lives were not.

Galatians2:11-14
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, -You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?"

The NIV's "he was clearly in the wrong" is a bit weak. I think the new, politically correct, version of the NIV is actually better here; it says "he stood condemned". I think Paul is saying that Peter was clearly guilty. Since Galatians is the inerant word of God, we understand that Paul was right and, therfore, Peter was wrong in this dispute. Of course, there may have been occasions when Peter was right and Paul was wrong.

Peter of all people should have understood that the church has been freed from Jewish food rituals and regulations. It was Peter who received the vision from God in Acts 10v8-16, of animals that the Jews considered "unclean". God told him to eat the "unclean" animals, Peter protested and God said "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean". This happened three times, so Peter got the message. This experience would have reminded Peter that Jesus had declared all foods "clean" (in Mark 7v19).

And God used that vision to prepare Peter for the conversion of the first Gentile Christians - Cornelius and his household (Acts 10v24-48). Since Peter was preaching when they were born again, and since he knew God had rescinded the food regulations, he should have been happy to eat with Gentiles, and to eat what the Gentiles eat. And at one time he was! Paul writes that Before certain men came from James, he [Peter] used to eat with the Gentiles.

However, when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. We don't know why Peter was afraid. We do know that the Jews persecuted the early church (indeed, Paul had Christians imprisoned and killed before he was converted) and we know that the church was struggling to work out what place Jewish customs should have in the church, now that Gentiles were being saved, too. Some leaders worked out an answer to this in Acts 15v1-29, but we don't know to what degree the churches world-wide accepted their decision. Perhaps Peter was afraid that Jewish persecution of the church would increase. Perhaps he feared for his own life. Perhaps he was afraid that he'd get a negative report when the men from James returned to Jerusalem, Perhaps he feared that his own following in the Judean church would be reduced. Perhaps, although this is probably too generous a guess, he was simply afraid of increasing tension among Jewish Christians.

Whatever he was afraid of, the fact remains that Peter allowed fear to cause him to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles, his brothers and sisters in Christ. That can never be right.

And, as so often happens when a leader makes a bad decision, others in the church were led astray. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy. The Jews had a long national heritage, which included the idea that they shouldn't eat with Gentiles. When Peter drew back from full fellowship with the Gentile Christians, the other Jewish Christians did the same, reverting to the understanding they'd had before they started following Jesus Christ.

Some of what we were taught before we knew Jesus can stay inside us for a long time before it's completely eradicated. When pressure comes, or when bad leadership is displayed, we can go back to what we should have repented of long ago. Perhaps that's one reason why James wrote, we who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3v1). It's one thing to sin. It's another thing to persuade others to sin, either by our words or by our actions, or even by our inaction.

And Paul writes, horrified, that even Barnabas was led astray. Peter was considered senior to Barnabas, so his example would have carried great weight. From what we read in scripture, Barnabas was a good man, but his moral resolve was not strong enough to withstand Peter and the other Jewish Christians in Antioch, and he fell into their sin, too. When a leader gets it wrong, he does far more harm than he expects.

Paul knew he had to deal with this. The church mustn't be divided, along racial lines or for any other reason:

Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one Body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all and in all.

Peter was clearly being hypocritical. As Paul asked, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" Peter lived like a Gentile when it seemed safe to do so, and withdrew fellowship from Gentile believers when he felt threatened.

And I wonder, how many of us, even today, behave differently when people from our social class or background are around? How many of us will be cold towards Christians who don't share our skin colour, or income bracket, or accent, or education, or lack of it, because we feel safer amongst people like us?

And how many leaders have divided churches through such weakness?

And how many of us, like Barnabas, have allowed ourselves to be pressured into doing something we know to be wrong?