“The outcome of the conflict between Peter and Paul is that the message of Jesus won the day.”
I love the way Scripture can speak today and bring clarity to situations and circumstances we face daily. This week we are looking at what first seems to be a knock-down-drag-out conflict between two heavyweights in the early church - Peter and Paul.
We find this conflict in Galatians 2, and it feels like a fly-on-the-wall moment, "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 believers followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy (Galatians 2:12-13)." That's why Paul writes, "When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong (Galatians 2:11)." Have you recently disagreed with someone about anything?! Wink. Wink.
As I mentioned earlier, this is where I love how Scripture can speak into our present circumstances. We're coming out of one of the most divisive seasons in recent memory. All I need to do is write the word "masks," and, no matter what you think, for some of you (probably many of you), it's sure to make your blood boil. What's more, masks (in my opinion) don't carry the same weight of importance as topics such as race, justice, and the political divide we've been dealing with throughout the past year. In many ways, the conflict between Peter and Paul mirrors our cultural divide and highlights different approaches to the same topic.
In our Sunday message, the main point we highlight is the difference between fear running amuck in our spiritual life verse having confidence in Jesus and letting that confidence give us the courage to live out our faith as Jesus would like. For this devotion, we'd like to highlight that the outcome of the conflict between Peter and Paul is that the message of Jesus won the day. Now, we don't have a record of Peter's response to Paul's challenge, but we know that both Peter and Paul went on to preach and teach that salvation was for all people through faith in Jesus. In other words, the message of Jesus won the day.
At times we need to be willing to reflect and ask sincerely, is what I think about this topic or this issue reflective of the way of Jesus - and if it's not, I need to be willing to change what I believe. It's easy to get caught up in the cultural heat of the moment, but we are sons and daughters of God, members of the kingdom of heaven. Our allegiance is to the way of Jesus first. We have surrendered our minds, hearts, lives to the one who gave up all the rights and privileges of heaven - out of love - to make a way for us to be renewed. What excellent news. We, who call ourselves by the name of Jesus, need to live the same way.
One commentator I read this week wrote, "we need people in our lives with enough nerve to say to us (at times), 'you can't do that.' Neither Paul nor the circumcision party nor Peter nor the gentiles won the fight that day. Christ won, and because Christ won, the church won. The biggest win of our lives is sometimes on the other side of a lost fight." Wow. That is both true and hard to hear.
As a spiritual formation practice this week, take some time to reflect on your thoughts, words, and deeds over the past year. If you need a reminder, talk to a close friend or family member, maybe take a look at your social media posts. Do your best to gain some perspective by asking, "How did I represent Jesus in a divisive season?" Take some notes, and make it all a matter of prayer with Jesus. I'm thankful for Paul's courage and the clarity of focus he had on what's important - the message of Jesus, and it's an invitation to all people everywhere to join the family of God.