Galatians 2:11-14 — Lights, Camera, DRAMA

READ THIS: Galatians 2:11-14

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
 
WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

Quick review: Cephas=Peter, James=brother of Jesus, Gentiles=nonJews, Circumcised=Jews, Barnabas=Paul's close friend, Paul=the one who wrote what we read above. 

So this is what just went down: Peter came over to where Paul was and he was having a great time with Paul and the Gentiles, but then some Jewish people came by and were doing things the Jewish way, like not eating certain foods, so Peter ditched the Gentiles to hang out with only the Jews. Peter had some clout, so other Jews also ditched the Gentiles, including Paul's homeboy Barnabas. But, they were supposed to be all unified in the name of Jesus, and besides, Peter had been living like a Gentile (not following Jewish law), so it was completely twisted that he wanted the Gentiles to live like Jews. 

Long story short, Paul called Peter OUT, and we'll see him say some more choice words to Peter tomorrow.

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. If you were in this story, who do you think you would be? Have you ever been in a situation like this, with two groups going at each other and one group being the "cool" group?

2. Why was Paul so upset with Peter, specifically? Peter was a Jew after all, and this was a common mistake the Jews made. [You might need to do the Try This to fully answer this question]
 
TRY THIS:

Try reading Acts 10, which tells a story of something Peter experienced some time before what we read about today. It's cool to see how the stories in the Bible kind of add up and contrast each other!

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