How to Treat a Brother

Galatians 2:11-14

INTRODUCTION

In our previous study, we spoke of the conference in Jerusalem that involved, Paul, Barnabas, Titus, the other apostles, the Jerusalem elders and an undetermined number of party crashers. The concern of the meeting involved Gentile conversion. According to those "who belonged to the party of the Pharisees," circumcision was the litmus test of a person's sincerity. The apostles and elders came to the conclusion that they could not force circumcision on Titus

At the meeting in Jerusalem, Peter had been quite vocal on the subject of Gentile conversion. He said.

Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. - Acts 15:7-11

But now we are looking from a different place and a different time and Peter had given into the pressure tactics and reverted to some of his old ways. That set up a confrontation between two apostles - two men who had been chosen by God as His spokesmen; two men who had great respect for one another. If we ever doubted whether conflict can arise between sincere and devoted brothers in Christ, then surely Galatians 2:11-14 lays that doubt to rest.

THE MOMENT OF CONFRONTATION

The confrontation that Paul describes to the Galatians had taken place in Antioch. Antioch has been described as the second great center of the Christian faith. We don't know how much time elapsed between the conclusion of the Jerusalem meeting and Peter's visit to Antioch. The church environment in Jerusalem and Antioch were very different. Jerusalem was a center of Jewish Christianity. Antioch was on the cutting edge of Gentile evangelism.

The gospel made rapid inroads into Antioch following the death of Stephen, when Cypriot and Cyrenian Jewish Christians, who had been forced to leave Jerusalem during a wave of persecution, suddenly found a receptive audience for the gospel among the Greeks who lived in Antioch. According to Acts 11:21, "The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord."

Barnabas made his way to Antioch and then decided he need to make a trip to Tarsus to enlist the help of Saul. Then later on the Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul out to preach the gospel. We commonly call this preaching trip - "Paul's first missionary journey." When that was completed, they returned to Antioch. They made the trip to Jerusalem that we read about in Acts 15 and then returned to Antioch.

Peter's arrival brought a different twist to the controversy. It wasn't just Peter's arrival that got things stirred up. According to verse 12, "certain men came from James." We really don't know whether these men were on some kind of mission and had been commissioned by James, or if they were as Burton Coffman suggested, sinfully and deceitfully pretending to have the endorsement of James.

Whatever the case may have been, one clear fact emerges. Their arrival and their demeanor stressed Peter to a significant degree. Before the arrival of the "men from James," Peter had no problem sharing food with the Gentiles, but his behavior abruptly changed. He ". . . began to separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group." That set in motion a chain reaction among other Jewish Christians. The pressure even got to Barnabas according to verse 13.

Paul stemmed the tide. He said in verse 11,

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.

The King James Version says he "was to be blamed." The original ASV is even stronger - "he stood condemned." Verse 14 describes the nature of the confrontation.

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?

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