"But when Cephas came unto Antioch, according to his face I stood against, because he was having been condemned... For before the to come of certain ones from Jacob, he was eating with the nations. But when they came, he was drawing back and he was separating himself, fearing the [ones] out of circumcision... And the rest of the Jews hypocrited with him, so that even Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy."
-Caught in the act, he was, that Peter - that’s the rough meaning of the word here. You know how someone screwed up, cuz you saw them doing it. Peter/Cephas was caught in the act, seen doing that which was wrong. And Paul called him on it - to his face. He didn’t post it on social media or send it in an email or a text. All too easy it is in our day and age to simply mail in our critical conversations - literally or digitally, to approach them indirectly. Or not at all. When someone is in the wrong, we have a divine opportunity to show that we care about them by pointing that out - in love - face to face. Now it is certainly possibly to call them out to their face in ways that fall short of caring - we may care more about how that person’s misstep affected our own bottom line or perhaps that of our organization, or we do not actually care about the person much in the first place. But it can be just as uncaring to say nothing at all.
-Sadly, Peter was ensnared in a kind of hypocrisy which, given his position as a leader, influenced a whole bunch of others to follow. He had gone on record as saying that God does not receive anyone ‘according to face’, He shows no partiality whatsoever towards anyone, most certainly not to Gentiles (Acts 10.34), that He does not see or treat or receive the uncircumcised any differently than Jews. Peter specifically gave his blessing to the affirmation of the Jerusalem council (to which Paul just referred), that the trappings of Judaism were not necessary, not salvific in any way. And giving every appearance of having learned the lesson that he should not regard as morally filthy what God had clearly declared to be clean (Acts 10.28), Peter was actually hanging out with Gentile believers in Antioch, eating with them, treating them like family. Until...
-When some of his Jewish fraternity brothers showed up from the home office in Jerusalem, personal representatives of the lead dog James himself, Peter made the choice to no longer hang out with the ones his old friends saw as uncool, beneath them, dirty. He gave into some peer pressure, some old cultural biases, and disrespected his new friends. So influential was he that even Barnabas, that faithful friend and gifted encourager and one who helped plant the church in Antioch to begin with, followed his example. No doubt some of the ones Barnabas began to snub were those he himself had led to and nurtured in the faith. If you've ever been snubbed by someone you thought was your friend, you know how painful that can feel.
-The word is hypocrisy. Pretense. It is what actors do - they pretend. Two-faced. They are not quite who they appear to be. Liars, in essence. They say one thing, but then do another. There are few things more reprehensible and disappointing than seeing hypocrisy rear its ugly head in a person’s life, especially if they are a leader. It betrays that they don’t believe a word of what they’re saying, so why should I? Most people want less than nothing to do with a hypocrite. And most assuredly Heaven feels the same way. Jesus had the most forceful words of condemnation for those who say one thing and do another (cf Matthew 22.13ff). Sometime after this, Peter will pen a letter where he talks about obeying the truth and sincere love for fellow believers and putting aside hypocrisy (1Peter 1.22-2.1), so, clearly the Lord uses this occasion to help Peter learn an important lesson, and to his credit, Peter apparently had a teachable heart. He received Paul’s correction with humility. May we each find a similar grace...
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