Lesson for September 22, 2021
The Book of Galatians
Lesson 4 – Paul Confronts Peter
Galatians 2:11-14
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of some men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision.The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Paul had just demonstrated that he was on the same level of the other apostles with regard to his spiritual gift of apostleship. He pointed out that he had seen the resurrected Christ, had not gone directly to Jerusalem to be instructed by the apostles, had gone into the Arabian desert where he had been taught by the Holy Spirit and after returning, he stayed away from Jerusalem for fourteen years. Paul showed that his apostleship was legitimately from God, not man. After the fourteen years, Paul, along with Barnabas and Titus, went to Jerusalem to discuss the matter of law-keeping for salvation (specifically, circumcision). Paul presented the message of salvation he was preaching to the church leaders, and all were in agreement that keeping the Law of Moses was not a requirement for salvation for either the Jews or the Gentiles.
When Paul related the story about Peter, it had to do with hypocrisy regarding the prohibition of eating certain foods in the Law of Moses. While the Mosaic laws were designed to promote physical health among the Jews, they were also designed to keep the Jewish race pure by not allowing them to eat (fellowship) with the Gentiles. All that ended when the Church Age began. Now, believing Jews and Gentiles were one in Christ.
Peter, who had been shown by God that the Mosaic Law had been set aside by Christ’s death on the Cross according to Acts 10:1-23, had agreed with Paul that salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone. However, there was still a lot of pressure from the Jewish leaders in the early church to keep the Law. Therefore, Peter, when in Antioch, stopped his practice of eating with the Gentile believers when certain Jewish believers sent by James came to meet with him. It was a common practice in the early church to meet in homes and study Bible doctrine, and after the church service to eat together (often called love-feasts). Peter, who had been participating in these practices, feared they would think he was not a good Jew for associating with the Gentiles. The natural result was that other believers followed Peter’s lead and withdrew their fellowship from the Gentile believers, potentially causing a division within the local church at Antioch.
So, what were the sources of the pastors teaching in the early churches? Their sources consisted of the Old Testament Scriptures, what Jesus had taught them directly while on earth, and eventually the writings of the Apostles once they began to be circulated among the various churches. Remember, the Old Testament is inspired by God just like the New Testament. The apostles and pastors (often called elders) read from the Old Testament and explained to the Church how it applied to Christ. Those apostles who were the disciples of Christ in the Gospels, learned much more than was record by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. (John 21:24-25) Jesus even taught them about the coming Church Age. (Matthew 16:18) Finally, they eventually had the writings of Paul, John, Peter, James, and others which were considered by the Church as Scripture, which they were of course. So, when the local church came together on Sunday, they would listen and remember the teaching. They didn’t have what we have today like pen and paper or electronic devices to take notes. Each local church, and there were more than one (even in Jerusalem), had a pastor and he would teach them what had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit as he studied from these various sources.
So blatant was Peter’s hypocrisy of withdrawal that Barnabas and many other Jews temporarily abandoned their fellowship with the Gentiles as well. The Greek word for joined him in hypocrisy is “hupokrinomai,” which means the act of concealing one’s real character or convictions. Peter and Barnabas had already agreed that keeping the Mosaic Law was no longer a requirement in the Church Age while in Jerusalem with Paul. However, for fear of the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem, they compromised their true beliefs and showed themselves to be hypocrites by avoiding the Gentile believers.
Remember that Paul’s purpose in these verses was to show the Jewish believers that they, like the Gentiles, were no longer obligated to keep the Law. Also remember that they were in the early stages of the Church Age and were still learning to transition from Law to grace. We read about Paul’s sin of legalism in Acts 21. James was still confused, even after the first conference in Jerusalem around 49 A.D., with regard to Jews keeping the Law after salvation. Paul’s sin of legalism was taking a Jewish vow to please the Jews and the church leaders in Jerusalem. There was still much confusion about the role of the Law for believers, especially Jewish believers.
Acts 21:17-26 – Paul Takes a Jewish Vow
Verses 17-21
“After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us gladly. And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders (pastors) were present. After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they began glorifying God. ‘You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.’”
This visit to Jerusalem was Paul’s fourth visit sometime around 55 A.D. While the elders (pastors) glorified the Lord because of the report, they seemed to be more concerned about the fact that Paul was a controversial figure. They were disturbed by having someone who would come in and upset their program and possibly call them on the issue of grace. Remember that in Jerusalem there were pastors who had little knowledge of the accurate Bible doctrine, as evidenced by the fact that they were not oriented to the grace of God and were not teaching spirituality by grace. They did teach salvation by grace, but they did not teach spirituality by grace. They simply used the Mosaic Law for the Christian Way of Life, which was legalism.
You see brother how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law. In verses 21 we have the basis for some very bad advice from the Jerusalem pastors. Paul was teaching grace for salvation, which they agreed with and grace for the Christian life, which they disagreed with. So, they began to focus their attention on getting Paul to conform to their form of spirituality, which was keeping the Mosaic Law. The Greek word for see in verse 21 is “theoreo” from which we get our English word “theory.” It means to be a spectator, to observe a situation, and to draw conclusions from a situation that may or may not be true. It was true that thousands of Jews had come to know Jesus Christ as Savior, but they had been erroneously taught that spirituality was by keeping the Mosaic Law.
Because James and the pastors in Jerusalem were legalistic, they used the “numbers game” on Paul. The pastors in Jerusalem based their success on how many people were in their congregation. God does not keep count of the number of people in a congregation; He is interested in the spiritual growth of those in the congregation, regardless of the number. These thousands of believers were legalistic like their pastors and were totally ignoring grace for the spiritual life. Therefore, their objective was to persuade Paul to cater to their legalism. Instead of inviting Paul to teach their congregation, the pastors at Jerusalem demanded that Paul take a Jewish vow.
They have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake (the Law of) Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. The Greek word teaching is used for oral teaching in the local churches. Someone (maybe the pastors) had been maligning Paul for teaching grace instead of the Law for the Christian life because they had no understanding of grace. Their motives were fear of the unbelieving religious Jewish hierarchy in Jerusalem. Christ had fulfilled the Law of Moses and introduced a new covenant of grace which excluded the Law of Moses as a means of salvation or spirituality. (Galatians 3:1-5)
Verses 22-24
“What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore, do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.”
In these verses, we see the fear of the pastors in Jerusalem. The very place where the church began historically on the basis of grace was now a place where Satan had made great inroads. The only way that Satan can make inroads with believers is to infiltrate their minds with false doctrine. (I Timothy 4:1) Grace was not being taught in Jerusalem, believers were not growing spiritually, and legalism was the order of the day. They were ordering Paul to comply with their demand. They were saying that Paul was going to have to do something to appease the legalistic Jews. The demand of the Jewish pastors in Jerusalem was both dishonest and blasphemous. Paul did not need to go into the Temple to commit an act of legalism in order to vindicate his ministry of the grace of God. The grace of God does not have to be apologized for. The grace of God is its own defense and its own power.
The rituals of the temple were something to be avoided. Because Paul was already out of fellowship with God when he went to Jerusalem, despite God’s warnings not to go, he bowed to their command in order to please them. But Paul was an apostle himself and had the highest authority from God available in the early church. Paul had ignored God’s warnings to stay out of the city and by taking a vow he would demonstrate that he was out of the will of God. In the Church Age, religious vows are not condoned by God under any circumstance.
Verses 25-26
“But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.”
This was a Nazarite vow of a man or a woman (Numbers 6), which the Jews still practiced but had added some of their own tradition. A person was showing their dedication to God by taking this vow for a specified period of time. They had to do certain things: a) they had to let their hair grow b) they had to go on a certain rigid type of diet c) they had to bring offerings to be sacrificed d) they had to go present themselves to the priest at the completion of the vow and then shave all of their hair which was taken to the altar and burned.
Once they met all the requirements, it meant that they had fully dedicated themselves to the Lord. Even though this was one of the lowest points in Paul’s life, he would recover through Rebound and continue to serve God until his death.
By the time Paul wrote the book of Galatians, he had gotten himself straightened out regarding this issue and was proving to the Jewish leadership no one was required to keep the Law after salvation, not even a Jew. A new higher law was in place, which was the Law of Christ.