November 30, 2024

November 30  
Galatians 2

Paul is going to do something hard but necessary.  He is going to talk to Peter about the issue he was seeing in how he changed his behavior towards the Gentiles depending on who was around.  His behavior was inconsistent and Paul is going to tell tell him this is a problem. Notice this is not a personal offense to Paul, but rather something Paul took notice of that affects other people.  

Paul was willing to talk to Peter because he believed it was important to go to him directly.  It is important that when we see hypocrisy in the lives of people and it is harming their witness for Christ or confusing fellow believers in regards to what is right that we don't just ignore the issue.  Was it comfortable for Paul to address Peter's issue? Probably not.  Could it have gone really poorly? Absolutely.  Peter could easily dig into Paul's past and his previous persecution of the church.  That is the wrong route to take in dealing with an issue.  When someone tells us about a problem currently in our lives and they are doing from genuine concern, it is not right to bring up their past mistakes as a way of justifying or defending ourselves.  When we have a problem in our lives and it is made known, we must look to the LORD and do what is right.  We cannot and should not make everyone's business our business, but when the LORD is leading us to speak up on an issue we must listen.