Peter's response to the delegation from Jerusalem and his withdrawal from the integrated fellowship of the church has been exonerated by some who think he was appropriately sensitive to the demands of his own mission to the Jews and was simply accommodating himself to those he was trying to win to Christ. If Paul himself could "become all things to all men" to win some to Christ (1 Cor 9:19-22), then why was it wrong for Peter to follow the same principle of accommodation when he adapted himself to the preferences and sensitivities of his home church?

From Paul's perspective, however, Peter's action was not accommodation for the sake of the gospel; it was compromise of the essential truth of the gospel. And on that basis Paul was willing to confront Peter with the inconsistency and hypocrisy of his actions. This confrontation was not just a power struggle to see who would maintain control of the church. Paul did not assert his authority as an apostle directly appointed by Jesus Christ or as one of the senior leaders of the church in Antioch. Nor did he appeal to the authority of the decision of the Jerusalem conference (vv. 7-9). Paul's refusal to follow Peter's example as all the other Jewish Christians did and his open rebuke of Peter were based solely on the standard set by the gospel: When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all . . . (v. 14).

Paul had the spiritual discernment to rise above the emotional trauma of the crisis: he saw the terrible consequences of Peter's action. Peter had contradicted the gospel. The gospel proclaimed that salvation for both Jews and Gentiles was by way of the cross of Christ and union with Christ. But Peter's separation from table fellowship with Gentile Christians implied that salvation for Gentiles required strict adherence to the law and incorporation into the Jewish nation. No doubt Peter would have denied that he meant to communicate this requirement to the Gentile believers. But how else could his action be interpreted? The Gentile believers could not help but conclude from Peter's withdrawal that they were lacking something, that they were unacceptable outcasts. If they wanted to enjoy fellowship with Peter and the mother church in Jerusalem, they would have to become Jews. Their experience of salvation would be incomplete until they became Jews and observed the Jewish law. Gentile believers would have seen these implications of Peter's action even if Peter did not.

Since the consequences and implications of Peter's action were so destructive to the unity and spiritual integrity of the church, Paul had no choice but to confront Peter in front of them all to prove that his action was wrong. A public confrontation is not pleasant. It can easily degenerate into a no-win situation. Usually there is a loss of face for all concerned. For that reason it is natural to avoid public confrontation at all costs. But when a leader avoids public confrontation with one who is causing others to lose their faith in the completeness of God's grace expressed in the gospel of Christ, the cost is the loss of their experience of God's grace. Paul was not willing for the church of Antioch to suffer that terrible loss.

Paul led Peter back to his own deepest convictions by asking him a question: "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?" (v. 14). By his practice of eating with the Gentile believers when he came to Antioch, Peter had already demonstrated that even as a Jew he had complete liberty to live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. In other words, Peter had already made it clear that his convictions permitted him to be free from Jewish food regulations. But now his separation from table fellowship with the Gentile believers forced Gentiles to follow Jewish customs. So while Peter, a Jew, had the freedom to live like Gentiles, his recent act of separation from Gentiles robbed them of their own freedom to live like Gentiles! They were being forced to live like Jews if they wanted to remain in the same church with the Jewish Christians. Actually, the verb that the NIV translates as to follow Jewish customs would be more accurately translated as "to become Jews." For the Gentiles would have to do more than follow a few Jewish customs; they would have to become Jews in order to have table fellowship with Jewish Christians who were following Jewish law.

To put it simply, Peter's separation had violated his own conviction that the racial division between Jews and Gentiles should not exist in the church. As a consequence of his separation, Gentiles were not admitted to table fellowship with Jews in the church. And the only way for them to gain admission was to become Jews.

If we feel that Paul was unnecessarily harsh or rude for rebuking Peter in public, we need to recall that the freedom of all Gentile Christians and the whole future of the Gentile mission was at stake. What if Peter's separation had set a precedent for the future so that all Gentile Christians really were required to become Jews? From a human perspective, such a precedent would have spelled the end of the Gentile church. It is not conceivable that Gentile churches could have been planted or would have grown if this requirement would have been enforced. And furthermore, if the division along racial lines had been allowed, the church would never have been able to exhibit a new humanity unified by faith in Christ, which transcends the racial and social divisions in the world. The truth of the gospel would be negated by such division.

We need to be encouraged by Paul's courageous stand to take our own stand against Christians who repeat Peter's mistake in the church today. The church today is divided in many places along racial and social lines. A list of such divisions would be too long to enumerate. We must not allow them to continue. The consequences for the clear proclamation of the gospel are disastrous. Divisions in the church negate the truth of the gospel. Let us boldly take our stand to heal those divisions now.