Why would the arrival of "certain man . . . from James" cause Peter to change his behavior?

According to verse 11, he was "afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. It is one thing to be intellectually committed to a certain point of view, but it is quite another thing to line your emotions up with you intellect.

When I was a young boy I decided that I did not want to eat stewed prunes. My father decided that I would indeed eat the prunes. After threatening severe punishment, I complied with his wishes and promptly regurgitated. The same thing happened again at a later time when a teacher at school attempted demanded that I eat everything on my plate, which included stewed prunes. My intellect tells me that stewed prunes do not precipitate a wave of nausea. As a matter of fact, many times I have consumed raw prunes with no ill effects. I can even agree that stewed prunes have certain health benefits, but to this day, I politely decline stewed prunes when they are offered to me. Emotions win over intellect every time.

Peter allowed emotions to rule over his intellect. He feared the repercussions of a Hebrew reaction to eating with the Gentiles. He well could have reasoned, "After all, my ministry isn't to the Gentiles, it is to the Jews." Never underestimate the ability of the human mind to rationalize whatever it wants to do. Paul point is a point that we need to remember when we are pressured to go against that which we know to be right. There comes a time when courage must rise above fear. Why was this important in Peter's situation?

• Peter was a in a position of leadership.

  He was no small fish in the pond. He was an apostle, a man deeply respected and honored by Christians everywhere. He was a man of considerable influence. When he refused to eat with the Jews, others followed suit. Paul was especially concerned because "even Barnabas was led astray."

  Barnabas had been a pioneer in Gentile evangelism. He had accepted the assignment to work among the Gentiles. Now, after Peter showed up, he didn't even want to eat with the Gentiles anymore.

  It's a sad thing when any child of God goes astray, but it is even more tragic when a leader goes astray. When a leader goes down, he usually takes people with him. I'm sure that's the reason James said,

  "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." - James 3:1

• Peter's behavior was a threat to the unity of the church.

  Had that one sin gone uncorrected, the church might well have divided into a Gentile church and a Jewish church. Peter came dangerously close to cutting the slender thread that held the church together as one body. I'm convinced that's the major reason that Paul dealt with the problems in such a direct manner.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Even though it is somewhat unsettling to read of a conflict between two apostles in the early church, their example is highly enlighten to us. Consider the following principles that emerge from this brief account.

• We must make the cause of the gospel our primary concern.

  We all have strong feelings about certain issues. Maybe we were raised a certain way or we grew up in a church that did things a certain way and when encounter people whose practices are different from ours, it's quite upsetting.

  Some years ago, I worked with a church that had a limited number of men who were willing to lead a public prayer on Sunday morning. The worship planners decided that the "public prayer pool" was so small, they would dispense with the closing prayer, so we nearly always closed the assembly with a song. A visitor approached me after the service one Sunday morning, demanding to know why we didn't have a closing prayer. I explained the reason to him. He said, "Well that's absolutely terrible. Sorriest excuse I've ever heard." Then he went off to rebuke one of the elders for their failure to adequately train our men. I appreciate the brother's concern and maybe we should have given more attention to training men to pray, but that's hardly a perversion of the gospel. He was upset because it violated his tradition.

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