Monday Morning Manna

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”                                 Galatians 2:11-13, ESV

Not a day goes by that I don’t miss all of my family members that have passed away from this life and entered into the next.   Among the many voices I hear daily,  it seems that my maternal grandmother who passed away not long ago is the one sending me reminders the most.  Having not been formally educated conversing with her would blow your mind as she was a sage with much wisdom.  MaMa, as she was called by us always seemed to speak in idioms which are short phrases that are packed with longstanding wisdom.  Today, as clear as a bell, I hear her saying to me Son, “if you Know Better, you ought to do better” Doing Better, seems to be the locus of the text above that I’d like to exegete in this writing.  Particularly, at the time of this text the Apostle Paul is giving a reminder to one of his fellow preacher friends whose name is Peter.  The Bible has much to say about Paul who was once a Jewish Pharisee meaning that he was quite knowledgeable of Jewish Ceremonial Law.  These laws required that all Jews eat what is known as a kosher diet and that every Jewish male be circumcised.  The reason God gave these laws were first and foremost to signify that He alone was God and secondly, that there must be a distinction between His people and the rest of the world.  Unarguably, Jesus came to the earth and through His death, burial and Resurrection He fulfilled the Jewish Law thereby making it no more necessary for people to be Saved through the keeping of laws rather, since His ascension into Heaven men and women are Saved by His Sacrifice on the Cross.  Following Jesus’ earthly work the new identifier that God is sovereign and that we are His distinct people is that we accept what Jesus has done because none of us are capable of doing anything to save ourselves.  In fact, it’s futile to believe that we can keep the law because sin is today and will always be around regardless of what we eat or circumcise.  By placing our trust in the fact that believing in Jesus is the only prerequisite to Salvation we free ourselves from any and every law thereby making us all members of Gods family through His Son.  In the aforementioned text Paul has traveled to Jerusalem to meet with three of the Jewish men who walked with Jesus during His earthly ministry and were eyewitnesses to His Resurrection.  These men known as Peter, James and John listened to their Jewish brother Paul, who informed them that Jesus had changed his life and called him to preach the gospel of Salvation through faith and not works to other races of people precisely, the Gentiles.   Because Peter, James and John had been taught by Jesus for three years they each already knew that Paul was indeed accurate for they too, had seen Jesus eat with Gentiles, heal Gentiles and even offer Salvation to them.  Even more concerning is that through several visions Peter himself understood this truth more than the others so much so, that he also had ceased to eat a kosher diet and often even fellowshipped with Gentile Christians.  It followed that Peter and his cohort supported Paul’s ministry to the non-Jews and all three of them bid him Godspeed after giving him their blessings.  Some time later Paul left Jerusalem and settled in a town called Antioch where he began teaching the gospel truth to non-Jews.  One day Peter stopped by Antioch to see the great progress that Paul was making and during his stay there he too, ate non-Kosher meals with the Gentiles, partook in Communion with them and enjoyed fellowship with them with full embrace. 

During the time of Peters visit some of his fellow Jews also visited Antioch and began to teach that Paul had misinformed the new Gentile Christians who they felt should keep kosher and acquiesce to circumcision.  If the mixed message were not bad enough it followed that because Peter did not want anyone to know that he had been fellowshipping with Gentiles he immediately stopped meeting with, eating with and even being in the company of Gentiles even though he knew better.  This action of hypocrisy by Peter is precisely what made Paul write in verse eleven that he stood in Peter’s face and told him that he was tainting the gospel message with his racist views.  Making matters even worse, several of the weaker Jewish Christians took Peter’s actions as being correct and they too, disassembled from the Gentiles.    Brothers and Sisters, as believers we should know by now that the gospel of Jesus Christ is inclusive of all who are willing to accept Him as their Savior.  We should know that in Christ there is no separation of peoples because all are members of Gods family who have accepted the finished work of Jesus at Calvary.  Our actions and/or inactions as believers will always be watched by onlookers and we do overwhelming harm to the message of the Bible whenever we knowingly support anti-Biblical thoughts and actions.  The furtherance of the gospel is largely dependent on all of us who know better to do better.  That means that if anyone should shun sins like racism, hatred, prejudice, degradation, oppression and even privilege it should be those who know better.  It is precisely this type inaction in the world today that has caused utter chaos! I admonish you to reimagine the Christian faith on the basis of what you know! To know that God loves everyone yet mistreat anyone is antithetical to the teachings of Christ; to know that God has said that all are equal yet respond from a seat of superiority is oppositional to Christian doctrine and to know that Gods mercy endureth to all generations and yet fail to show mercy towards our brothers and sisters in the world, is akin to treason.  Beloved the Christian life is intended to be lived out peaceably, lovingly and unconditionally on the world stage and to knowingly do anything otherwise is one of the most harmful things we can do to the message of the Cross.  My appeal to you today is that if there is any known prejudice, hypocrisy, pride and even discord in your heart  that you release it right now so that the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding can flow through you to all of those who Christ has called your brothers and sisters.  The truth of the matter is that our nation must do better, our states must do better, our cities/towns must do better, our churches must do better and we ourselves must do better! In the words of the great Mahatma Ghandi, we should “be the change that we want to see in the world.” Conclusively my friend if in any area of your life you have knowingly been less loving than you should this is a great time to make up your mind to — do better!  

Sincerely,