Galatians 2:11-14 – a verse by verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Galatians 2:11-14

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’”

Have you ever changed something about yourself in order to fit in? Maybe you dressed a certain way, participated in an activity beyond your comfort zone, or compromised on your beliefs a little bit.

Here’s another question that’s slightly similar: Have you ever felt like you needed to change who you were because someone walked into a room? Students in the lunchroom behave better when the principal comes near. Coworkers in the break room stop trashing the company when the boss walks through. Even pastors in a church will put on a good face when the overseers from the denomination show up. We all feel pressure to make a good impression & act differently depending upon who’s around. And, sometimes, this pressure to perform and conform can leads us to act in ways that betray what we really believe. And, in this passage, we’re going to look at a story where this unfolds in the life of an apostle.

In the last chapter, we read about Paul & Peter coming together in agreement on the gospel, but in this passage, Paul takes us back to a time that wasn’t so pleasant…Here was the issue: Peter knew that the gospel was for everyone—Jew & Gentile—he could fellowship with them all. But he had allowed certain people to influence him in a wrong direction. And Paul uses this story to launch into some of his most powerful & unique words about the true gospel in all his letters.

v. 11 – “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.”

I’ve always said that when a person mentions a lot of names in a conversation, they're either gossiping or telling a good story. So far, in this letter, Paul has mentioned himself, Barnabas, Titus, Peter, James, and John, but now he mentions Cephas. It’s an Aramaic word for stone or rock. And who else in the New Testament had a name that meant “rock”? Peter! Jesus gave Simon the Greek name, Πέτρος Petros, which means stone. So, verse 11 is a story about how, one time, the apostle Paul had a disagreement with the apostle Peter! We just read, in the last chapter, that these guys were on the same page…So, what could have led to this?

Well, Peter was publicly sinning by compromising on the Gospel. And even though everyone loves to point out Matthew 18, in which Jesus gives instructions about approaching those who sin against us privately, it’s also true that public sins warrant and require public address. “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear” (1 Timothy 5:20). Anyone who acts a fool, tells lies, and commits other sins in front of people doesn’t get the luxury of being privately corrected—even if it’s Peter!

I think Paul tells this story to let everyone know that, even if they claim: “We got our message of Jesus plus circumcision from the other apostles” they’re still wrong, “I’ve had to confront Peter before, and I will again, if he’s out of step with the Gospel.” So, here’s what Peter was doing that needed to be corrected.

v. 12-14 – “For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Now, when Paul says Peter’s actions were “not in step with the truth of the gospel,” he’s not just saying Peter sinned—of course Peter sinned, but the Gospel is for sinners. That’s not the issue. What happened here is that Peter’s sin misrepresented the Good News. He acted in a way that denied God’s radical grace and excluded others from the promises. So, when the Bible talks about being “out of step with the gospel,” it's not talking about messing up or slipping into sin. Instead, the focus is one any behavior that props up our pride, draws lines God never drew, or makes others feel unwelcome.

I can remember, one time, my sister & I got into a really sarcastic, mean argument at church. It all went down in front of the kid's class we were supposed to be teaching… Eventually, my mom came in, realized we were fighting, and came up with a plan. She announced to the class of children that what they had just witnessed was a skit, and that it was their lesson for the evening! She asked the kids to identify the problem in how we communicated and that it was their job to decide how the two of us should reconcile. Of course, it was not a skit…and Galatians 2 is not an acted-out play but a real disagreement.

When Peter was hanging out with uncircumcised Christians, he had no problem eating with them, enjoying their company & their Gentile menu. In the eyes of a Jew, a racially integrated meal like this would have been scandalous! Today, we think there’s a division between black/white, but that is nothing compared to Jew/Gentile. And just like back then, there are still voices today that churches & countries should be segregated.

There’s a guy online who’s gained a following for promoting racial segregation in churches. (Even though—and as a fellow fat guy I can say this—he looks like he’d never turn down a burrito). He claims Paul would’ve supported separate congregations for different races. But let’s be real: you’d have to utterly ignore Galatians in its entirety to believe that. Peter knew that any relationships he had with Gentiles would cause a problem with the Jews. He faced this criticism in Acts 11:2-3 & admits that, at one point, he felt this way Acts 10:28. ↴

“So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them’” (Acts 11:2-3).

“And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean’” (Acts 10:28).

This just goes to show that guilt by association was a thing back then, too.

Peter knew that Jesus tore down the walls between the 2 groups. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

But, in the back of his mind, he knew that most other Jews had not embraced the Gentiles. So, when guys from Jerusalem, where James was influential, showed up in the land of the Gentiles, Peter starts changing his tune. He had been rubbing elbows with Greeks & Romans at the table, chowing down on pork, but when the Jews showed up, Peter excused himself & asked for a Tic-Tac to cover his pepperoni breath. In other words, Peter had been influenced by the fear of man (Pr. 29:25, unlike Paul in Gal. 1:10)—he was worried about how people would react to his inclusion of the Gentiles.

And this is where we need to take a hard look at ourselves too. We need to define others by Christ and ditch the ‘us vs. them’ mentality in the church. As soon as we draw lines that Christ erased, we’re out of step with the gospel just like Peter was. Now, just think about how big of a deal this would’ve been. We’re talking about an era of church history where there was no Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. The only stories people knew about Jesus came from word-of-mouth or from eye-witnesses. So, if you lived in Antioch, and Peter visited your church, I’m sure everyone would be on the edge of their seat to hear all that Peter could tell them about what Jesus was like. He was a huge source of information, so when he misrepresented the gospel, it was a huge issue. Also, think about the damage that this sort of division would have done to the church service!

If you can't eat & drink together, that also means you can’t do one of the most important things the church is supposed to do together—communion! “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

Now, I’m not dogging on Peter...I actually find his story extremely encouraging. All through the gospels, Peter fails foolishly and puts his foot in his mouth often.

• “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (Matthew 16:22).

• “But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink” (Matthew 14:30).

• “Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here…” (Luke 9:33).

• “Peter answered him, ‘Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away’” (John 13:37).

• “And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?’” (Mark 14:37).

• “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear” (John 18:10).

And, here—even though this is after the resurrection, after Jesus restored him, and after the Holy Spirit had been sent down at Pentecost, Peter falls into error.

Maybe you’ve felt like Peter. You’ve failed publicly. You’ve caved into pressure. You’ve betrayed what you believe. You circle back to your silly mistakes and same old sins. You say: “I’m a Christian now, aren’t things supposed to be different?” The good news is: even after Pentecost, even after seeing the risen Christ, Peter still stumbled. And yet God didn’t throw him away.

You are not alone in your stupidity—and neither was Peter! Perhaps James and even Barnabas were acting weak by caving in to the cultural opinions. Thankfully, Peter had Paul—a friend who was willing to set him straight. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6).

Paul had no issue with standing alone on the word of God for what is right. And while I’m sure this scene was somewhat awkward, Peter & Paul patched things up. In fact, Peter signs off on Paul’s letters and says they belong in our Bibles! “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

And I, for one, am so glad Paul wrote letters and Peter was on board. There are some amazing and shocking things that Christians believe, but at times they are so scandalous that if I was the one who said them, people would call me a heretic. And that leads us to verses 15 and 16…

“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:15-16).