April 4th, 2022

Conforming to the Standards of Man

Galatians 2:11 NIV

"When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcised group."

      When I read this scripture, I could almost picture this scenario going down in a middle school cafeteria. Someone gets upset because they're friend is sitting with the cool group, pretending to be someone they're not, so they confront them in front of their new clique. However, this specific scene means much more than just two middle school children duking it out in the lunchroom. While Peter was a devoted disciple of Christ, and in my eyes undoubtedly loved Jesus with his whole heart, he had shortcomings just like you and me. Peter played an active role in creating the church alongside Paul. However, despite the vision Peter had in Acts chapter 10 which led to him accepting that circumcision didn't matter to the faith anymore, he cowered in the face of other Jews wo still believed in circumcision. Peter had accepted and even ate with Gentiles, but when the Jewish men came along, he went and ate with them. 

      While Peter fell short in upholding his beliefs, I wonder how many of us toss our faith to the wind in order to appease man. And honestly, I think this is something we all have done at one point or another. There have been many times in my life when I have said or did things that went against what I believed in. Conforming to society is so dangerous, yet so easy to do. However, it's important that we rise above this temptation and live true to our faith. Though we may be afraid of what society will do to us, we must remember that man can't hurt us with Christ on our side. While Paul was also a Jew, he took it upon himself to speak up and remind Peter just who he really was and what he stood for. Paul also reminded him the truth, and that was that, though the law was created to be followed, Jew or Gentile, it is through our belief in Christ that we will be judged. Man (or society) may set the standard, but it's our belief that will determine our destiny.

Can you recall a time when you've compromised your faith to appease man? What was the result of that? What can you do moving forward to hold true to what you believe in?