Nothing is more counter cultural to the Gospel than segregation

 

Experiencing another culture involves experiencing their food. Mixing culture and food can be a beautiful thing but not always. In this passage it created a problem between the Jewish and the non-Jewish believers, Gentiles, because of separation while eating. This was a contradiction of the unifying Gospel message which places every Christian on the same level.  Jesus’ death on the cross should not just reconcile believers to God but also to one another.

The apostle Paul opposed the apostle Peter to his face in Antioch because of this matter. Peter had withdrawn from the Gentile believers to eat with the Jewish believers. This was seriously wrong and especially so because they were ‘pillars’ of the church. God had already given Peter a vision to show that the Gospel salvation was for all people not just the Jews but he succumbed to showing partiality to the Jewish believers because of fear. Paul called Peter’s behavior as hypocrisy and said that Peter was not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel.

The root of the problem is a misunderstanding of the basis of salvation. He explains that no-one can be justified, made right with God, by what they do. The only way anyone can be made right with God, justified, is by faith … trusting in what Jesus has done in dying for our sins on the cross. We are not saved by our works but by the wondrous work that He did on the cross in our place.