Confronted by Your Actions

Galatians 2:11-14

Can you identify with the Scripture reference above?  Have you ever confronted or been confronted by your actions, or someone else’s actions with a group of people whom are not the ones you or they normally associated with?  If so then you will be able to understand how unconformable Peter must have been when Paul calls him on the carpet.

Picking up the story in verse 11, “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.”  This was not small talk this was altercation; Paul is the outsider and was talking about the heavy of the Church.  Paul is saying you are off base and he is saying you’re a hypocrite and your example is not in step with the truth of the gospel, to none other than the man, Peter.  Paul’s confrontation is clear in verse 12, “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.”  How easy it is to let fear separate us from being the person of God and this is none other than the apostle Peter who spoke to the people of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and three thousand were added to the church.  This is Peter who stood before the council of priests and Sadducees and proclaimed in Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  It is sometime later that the apostles are arrested and the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and after looking for them everywhere, it was reported that they were teaching in the temple.  They were told the high priest wanted to see them and this was his message; do not teach any longer in the name of Jesus Christ.  How did Peter respond, “We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.”  (Acts 5:29-30) This same Peter is fearful of some brother’s who came from James.

Satan knows you and I well, and he will always use the “fear of men” as a trump card as he did with Peter.  We are told in Proverbs 29:25, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice