Good Morning!
Many lessons can be learned from the life of Peter. He was bold. After Pentecost Peter became the voice of believers in the city of Jerusalem. He gave all of his energy to serve his Lord. God used miracles to open the eyes of Peter to important spiritual issues. For example, God caused a sheet to come down out of the sky to show Peter that the Gentiles were not unclean just because they were Gentiles. God wanted Peter to know that Gentiles had every right to be a child of God...not Jews only!
But, the memory of Peter seems to be short. When he went to Antioch he was eating with and enjoyed the fellowship of the new Gentile believers. BUT, when the Jewish believers arrived from Jerusalem, he withdrew from the Gentiles fearing that the Jews would be angry with him. There was the issue of the "law" that put fear in him. He knew that many of the Jews believed that the only way for a Gentile to be a believer is for them to come to God through the law of Moses. Peter knew what was right but acted out of fear of the Jews.
Paul confronted him...publicly! Read Galatians 2:11-14:
"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, 'If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?'"
Peter knew the truth because God had taught him that Gentiles were NOT required to live under the law of Moses to be saved. The Gospel was free to all who believe in Jesus by Faith.
Oh, we have our issues today. We are 2,000 years removed from Paul's conversation with Peter and we continue to promote issues that separate us. You do NOT need to be a certain denomination to be saved. The Gospel is for Baptists just as much as it is for Pentecostals or Methodists or Lutherans or Presbyterians or whoever. The Gospel is for all people of every race and every political persuasion. I have seen people withdraw from someone because they were something different than them. One year I traveled to the former Soviet Union and helped distribute 75,000 Bibles that we had printed into the Russian language. We were planning to give the Bibles to evangelical churches and pastors so they could distribute them to believers in their country. We stayed our first night in Uzhgorod, Ukraine...a city on the eastern border of Ukraine. We contacted two pastors in that city. When they came to receive the Bibles I noticed something strange AND sinful. The pastors came to the sidewalk in front of the hotel but would not come closer than 200-300 feet to each other. One pastor was from the Pentecostal church and the other was from the Baptist church. Some evangelist from America had come to one of their churches claiming that the other church was full of heretics because of what they believed and taught! So, they believed it and became enemies! This is the action of Satan. His will is to divide us by lying to us. If Satan could divide Paul and Peter, then, he was on his way to notching a victory over God's work.
If Satan can divide believers in America he will again claim a victory. The result is always the same. Satan's desire to keep as many people out of heaven as he can. The sad thing is that he is claiming a lot of victories.
Here's the fact. Paul and Peter settled their issue. Peter was wrong! Peter could have fought the issue and divided God's work so that it would have become ineffective. BUT, Peter repented and grew a spine bone and received what God was teaching him so that he could claim more victories for Jesus and NOT for Satan.
What about us? When it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ we KNOW what is right. We know the truth. We must share it in how we speak. We must live it in how we love others. We must repel pride and arrogance and surrender to what God teaches.
When I see believers put "in-your-face" stuff on Facebook...it troubles me. We are to "love our enemies and be not bitter against them." Besides...you may not be right on the issue. God's will for you is that you not act in defiance to prove you are "right" but to just be God's! Be His child and "love others as you love yourself." The most important things are not the issues...the important thing is to be God's child and be faithful to the Gospel!
Read how Paul ends this chapter:
"For through the law I have died to the law, so that I might live for God.
I have been crucified with Christ 20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing." 2:19-21
I have died to the law...it is NOT the way to Salvation. I live for God...NOT myself. I am NOT right because of what I think...I am dead and Jesus lives in me...the One who is Right!
May God Bless You!
Don Betts
DBEA/campus320
DBEAWINNING.COM
TO GOD BE ALL GLORY!