protect the gospel
Pastor Judah’s message from this week (listen or watch here) was really powerful. It’s so important to maintain the integrity of the good news. It made me think of when Paul confronted Peter in Antioch.
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? [Galatians 2:11-14]
Really, Paul? Peter hadn’t fallen into sexual immorality. He hadn’t murdered anyone. He wasn’t blaspheming. He was just eating with different people. Is that so bad? Apparently it is. Peter was upholding the traditions of men, which as Jesus told the pharisees in Mark 7:13, make the word of God of no effect.
The legalistic mindset is not overt. It is wreathed in subtlety. It is perhaps the scariest tendency of our human nature. We must guard and protect the gospel, not only from false teachers, but even from our own unconscious influence.