WHAT ABOUT HYPOCRISY?

Part of my message Sunday dwelt with hypocrites. I was amazed at Paul's writings in Galatians 2 in which he bluntly called the Apostle Peter a hypocrite. Now that is fairly strong word of accusation. Yet it was true.

Gal. 2: 11-13 reads in the NKJ:

"¹¹ Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; ¹² for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. ¹³ And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy."

Peter had been eating with the Gentiles until some of the leaders from Jerusalem came for a visit. Then Peter changed and reverted back to Jewish traditions of The Law and began demanding Jewish traditions be placed upon the Gentile believers. Paul called Peter to task for being hypocritical by living one way and then changing and putting unreasonable demands on the Gentiles when the Jerusalem leadership appeared. Peter was living the life of a pretender. He wasn't living up to the moral standards he was placing on others.

Peter was being hypocritical.

To be honest, I felt challenged by Paul's writings. If Peter was guilty of hypocrisy, then I wonder how often I am guilty too, not over the issues Peter struggled with but other things. After all , we are talking about the Apostle Peter.

Yes, hypocrisy still exists in the church and sometimes in the least expected places. Maybe we all need to take a close look at what we are doing and the inconsistencies of our lives. Maybe we won't judge others so much if we take a closer look at ourselves.