In Galatians 2, Paul sets out a specific example of how people can distort and even depart from the Gospel. We can safely assume that this is the particular issue that has reared its head again in Galatia.
Paul explains that when he went to see the church leaders in Jerusalem that they were in agreement on the Gospel and this fed through to their expectations for Gentile converts. Remember that at that time, whilst Peter had shared the Gospel with Cornelius, it was primarily the church in Antioch and Paul who were engaging in the Gentile mission.
Titus, a Gentile was with Paul. Now, Paul wasn’t adverse to doing things for the Gospel and so on another occasion, Timothy was circumcised to enable him to serve the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles more effectively, However, no requirement was placed upon Titus to be circumcised. The implication then is that Titus as an uncircumcised, Gentile believer was welcomed in as part of the Church and offered full fellowship.
However, something happened at a later stage, some people, linked to James, although Paul doesn’t say whether James himself was caught up in the controversy, seemed to have got to Peter and spooked him, even though he had been one of those who had affirmed Paul and welcomed Titus without condition. Peter was spending time with the church in Antioch and whatever it was that these others said, it got to him so that he withdrew from eating with the Gentile believers (Table fellowship).
Paul describes these visitors as “the circumcision party”. In other words, unlike the Jerusalem apostles, when Paul visited, this group were insisting that Gentiles had to be circumcised. They were willing to welcome them into God’s people but in order to do so, they were insisting that these new brothers had to receive circumcision.
The result was that until such time as the new Christians received circumcision, a boundary or barrier was created between them and the circumcised believers. They were being treated as at best second class in the kingdom. If you could not even have a meal with them, then that suggested you considered them unclean. I mean, Jesus had even had dinner with tax collectors, prostitutes and publicans, so to refuse to eat with someone, to give or to receive hospitality in their company was to indicate that they were beyond the pale.
At one level, therefore the issue of “who I have dinner with” might seem like a second order issue but Paul spots the danger and sees how it links back to the Gospel. You see, Peter’s dining decisions supported a view that created extra hurdles for people to belong to God’s people. What is more, by refusing to share fellowship with them, by indicating that they did not consider uncircumcised Gentiles as one with them, they were exercising a form of discipline, exclusion would in effect have also meant that such people were not able to engage in the gathering of the church which seems to have happened over a meal. If Peter would not eat with them, then he probably also would not have taught them because teaching would have happened in such contexts. If they could not eat with believers then how could they share the Lord’s Supper.
If they were cut off from the body then this meant they were viewed and treated as though they were not truly saved, they did not belong to Christ. They were treated as under condemnation. That’s why Paul sees this as serious. Paul has a low tolerance level for such actions and despite Peter’s status in the church he confronts him. We can assume with resulting repentance.
We may not have the same particular live dilemma today. However, what we read in Galatians 2 shows how our attitudes in horizontal relationships can demonstrate unhealthy beliefs and even beliefs that indicate a misunderstanding of the Gospel. If we treat people from other ethnic minorities, women, the poor or those with disabilities and second class and not worthy of our time and fellowship then we may be betraying a false understanding of how Christ sees and treats them. This indicates too a form of pride that suggests we have forgotten that we too are saved by grace.
Faithroots 