The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 131

II. !'- C~MMON AGREEMENT TO REMEMBER THEM. 1. It is agreeable to mark this unity of feeling in the midst if controversy. 2. There ouglit to be no division with regard to the poor. The dictates of humanity, the demands of duty, the claims of interest alike enforce a due consideration of the poor, but especially of those who belong to the household of faith. 3. A common object if charity ought to ha-ue a uniting effect on people separated by other interests or opinions. III. 1'rrE APOSTLE'S SPECIAL ANXIETY ON THEIR BEHALF. 1. He would naturally <iesire to conciliate the Jews and destroy their anti-Gentile prcfudices. 2. Yet his liberality was no token if dependence upon Jerusalem. 3. The prospect of ingratitude from the Jews would have no effect in repressing his charitable zeal on their behalf. 4. The apostle was more forward on their behalf than any other apostle. How he fulfilled the engagement is abundantly manifest (1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. viii.; Rom. xv. 26). Vers. 11-14.-The apostle's rebuke of Peter at .Antioch. There is no record of this scene elsewhere in Scripture. It is a further proof of the apostle's independence as well as of his devotion to Christian liberty. I. CONSIDER THE CONDUCT OF PETER. 1. The scene of this interview between Peter and Paul-Antioch. It was a city on the Orontes, in Syria, the seat of the Macedonian empire in Asia, chiefly inhabited by Greeks, liberalized in thought by considerable culture. It was the second capital of Christianity, Jerusalem being the first, and held a prominent place as the centre of Gentile Christian life. What occurred here would have wide results. 2. The time. It occurred probably during the sojourn of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, after the council of Jerusalem had settled the whole question of the relation between Jewish and Gentile Christians (Acts xv. 30-40). Peter's conduct was, therefore, all the more singular and indefensible, because it was so necessary to secure Christian liberty on the basis of the decrees. We cannot forget that, long before, the -vision from heaven showed him the worthlessness of Jewish traditions (Acts x. 27). 3. The circumstances. "Before that certain came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them of the circumcision." Those who came from James were not false brethren, nor even necessarily Judaic zealots, but certain persons whom he sent to Antioch, not to impose a yoke of ceremonies on the Gentilei:, but to reassure Jewish Christiass as to their right to observe the divinely appointed usages of their fathers, which the decrees of the Jerusalem council had done nothing to overthrow. The conduct of James was perfectly legitimate. Yet it is probable they pleaded that there was no warrant in the decision of the council for the freer intercourse with Gentile Christians which Peter had been practising. The Jewish Christians were still to "keep the customs," and not to mix freely with the Gentiles (Acts xv. 19). When these persons came to Antioch, they found Peter eating with Gentiles as he had done before (Acts x.), disregarding the isolation established by Levitical laws. They found him, in fact, living as a Gentile, not as a Jew. Peter at once, through the influence of fear-probably the fear of losing his influence with the Jewish Christians-began to withdraw himself from the Gentiles, discontinuing his eating with them, without giving one word of explanation, and attaching himself to the Jewish Christians, as if the old distinctions of meats were still in force and still sacred in his eyes. It is not said that the" certain from James" reproached him with his laxity. It may have been, after all, an empty fear on his part.. Yet it was a most extraordinary act of tergiversation on the part of one of the" pillars'' of the Church. 4. Its effects upon both Jews and Gentiles at Antioch. It involved tho Jewish Christians in the hyprocrisy of Peter himself. "And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him "-even those very persons who rejoiced at the decision of the cou11cil (Acts xv. 31). 'l'he Jewish couverts might be tempted to believe th~t the 011. n.1-:ll.J THE EPISTLE ·ro THE GALATIANS. 97