“Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.” (Galatians 2:11-13).

Peter had been the first apostle to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. In Acts 10, we see the hard lesson that he had to learn, with the vision of the animals in the sheet being shown to him three times. The Lord emphasized that what men may call common or unclean should not be called that IF the Lord had made them special or clean. In response to the vision and with six brethren with him, Peter made his way to Caesarea and preached the gospel to the Gentiles for the very first time. God sent the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles to show the Jews that He wanted Gentiles, Jews, indeed, all men, in the church.

Yet, sometimes prejudice and national pride are hard to overcome. Here, we find that Peter played the hypocrite and dissembled when some Jews from James came to Antioch. It is hard to believe that even Barnabas, who was so instrumental in the work there in Antioch (Acts 11), was led astray as well. The power of influence is so awesome and overwhelming sometimes.

Would Paul have been right, or done right, in allowing this to go unchallenged? Could he have just ignored this and gone on as if nothing had happened? NO! The truth of the gospel was at stake. Fellowship that Jesus bought with His own blood was at stake. While God would have and could have overcome this (for God is all powerful, and even uses the mistakes of man for His glory), think about the harm that would have resulted if this had not been handled in just this way.

FALSE TEACHERS AND FALSE DOCTRINES MUST BE PUBLICLY REBUKED. In this situation, Paul did not wait until he could pull Peter aside privately and discuss this issue with him. He dealt with this in as public a way as Peter had done. Some of my well meaning brethren today state that one cannot rebuke a false teacher publicly without first talking to him privately. Paul did not understand that! Consider the harm that could happen if the false teacher is NOT publicly rebuked for something he said or did publicly. Those who heard him, or saw him, would think all is right IF the rebuke is not handled publicly.

PAUL DID NOT IGNORE IT AND HOPE IT WOULD GO AWAY. Sometimes brethren want to ignore problems and hope that they will be resolved on their own, and/or that God will take care of them. Yet problems do not get solved that way. Because the church is a community of believers, we have responsibilities to our brethren. We must “restore the erring with an attitude of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). James says, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20). We owe it to one another to try to bring the erring back and to resolve the problems that will come our way. GOD DEMANDS IT! For the good of the church, for the good of our souls, and for our relationship with God, let us all have the courage to do what God demands.