Setting – Paul confronts Peter, Barnabas and the other Jewish Christians.
Content – Paul meets Peter in Antioch and sees that he, Barnabas and other Jewish Christian’s are being hypocritical (v. 14b), “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?” When the friends from James came (v. 12b), “he {began} to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision” It came to the point (v. 13-NLT), “Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.” Paul confronts Peter of this hypocrisy.
Application – We need to live without being two-faced (hypocritical). Peter needed to act the same whether he was with the Jews or Gentiles. For us, we must have integrity to be the same at work and church, in public and private. A simple test of our integrity, we do the same things if Christ was with us the whole day? We need to realize that the Holy Spirit does exist with us everyday and that God sees everything we do.
In addition, we need to be willing to confront other brothers. Paul confronted the situation because it was wrong. We need to be willing to do the same. We do this out of love for God, the body of Christ and the individual; we want to have righteousness dominate.
Content – Paul meets Peter in Antioch and sees that he, Barnabas and other Jewish Christian’s are being hypocritical (v. 14b), “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?” When the friends from James came (v. 12b), “he {began} to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision” It came to the point (v. 13-NLT), “Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.” Paul confronts Peter of this hypocrisy.
Application – We need to live without being two-faced (hypocritical). Peter needed to act the same whether he was with the Jews or Gentiles. For us, we must have integrity to be the same at work and church, in public and private. A simple test of our integrity, we do the same things if Christ was with us the whole day? We need to realize that the Holy Spirit does exist with us everyday and that God sees everything we do.
In addition, we need to be willing to confront other brothers. Paul confronted the situation because it was wrong. We need to be willing to do the same. We do this out of love for God, the body of Christ and the individual; we want to have righteousness dominate.
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