Racism (Galatians 2:11-14)

Racism
Galatians 2:11-14

INTRODUCTION:
Jesus Loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white -
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children.

There are some sins I understand. That is, I understand why people do certain things. I understand the urge behind covetousness. I understand what motivates people to engage in sexual immorality. I understand envy.

But there are other sins I simply do not grasp. I do not know why someone would practice witchcraft. I sort-of understand atheism. I do not understand witchcraft. I do not understand idolatry, worshipping something physical, something visible. And I do not understand prejudice. I do not understand chauvinism; I don’t understand why some men would think a woman is somehow inferior simply because she is a woman. And I do not understand racism; I don’t understand why some people think that simply because someone is of another race, they are somehow inferior - or superior - than someone else.

Racism is not always white against black. In Romania, there was racism from some Romanians against gypsies. Racism comes in all different colors, as it were. It is simply being prejudiced against someone because they look differently than we do, talk differently than we do, even think differently than we do.

You may remember that after the tragic death of George Floyd back in the spring by police officer Derek Chauvin, I suggested that you and I need to reach out to people in our sphere of influence who might be a “George Floyd” or who might be a “Derek Chauvin.” Now, our American legal system, our jurisprudence, is based on the fundamental principle: “Innocent until proven guilty.” Officer Chauvin was called to the scene of this convenience store because the store clerk thought that Mr. Floyd was passing a counterfeit $20. “Innocent until proven guilty” would compel the police officer to assume Mr. Floyd was innocent of knowingly using a counterfeit bill until it could be proven otherwise. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Mr. Floyd died in police custody. But, the same legal principle would hold true for Mr. Chauvin as well, regardless of how much we hate the idea of racism - Mr. Chauvin ought to be held innocent of racism until he is proven guilty.

In that specific sermon, I also pointed out that I can’t do anything relative to the people in MN. I don’t live there; I have no influence over anybody who does live there. All I can do is to make sure I’m loving everyone who is made in the image of God and all I can do is to encourage you to make sure you are loving everyone who is made in the image of God.

I want us to look at an event out of the life of the apostle Peter and consider this event in the light of racism: Galatians 2:11-14:

THE SIN - 2:12:
We are not examining this text in the order Paul presents it; I’m looking at it chronologically. First, what happened was that Peter was eating with Gentiles - non-Jews. That’s what Peter was supposed to have done. Jesus told Christians to preach the gospel to every creature, in every nation (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19). Peter was the first Christian to do that very thing. Now, Peter had to be pushed into doing it by a miraculous vision from Jesus Christ, but he did it, back in Acts 10.

When Peter shows up at Cornelius’s house, Peter told this man, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean” (Acts 10:28). So Peter preached to him, baptized him for the forgiveness of sins, and enjoyed fellowship with Cornelius and his household.

From that point on, the churches of Christ began sharing the gospel with everyone, with Asians and Europeans and Africans. Anyone who was willing to submit his or her heart to the commands of Jesus Christ became a Christian and was accepted into the family of God, all on equal terms.

“Equality” is a key term in this whole discussion - In other words, racism is wrong because:

1. God created all human beings in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26-28).
2. I believe all cultures grew out of the division of languages at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. What that means is that all cultures and all cultural rituals have equal standing in the eyes of God. For example, in Acts 17:26, Paul says that God made from one man - Adam - every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.
3. American society may be more advanced technologically than other societies but aside from technology, the only way any society is more advanced than any other society is if a society is closer to biblical principles, closer to undiluted NT Christianity than some other society. To the degree that our society reflects Christianity, to that degree, our society would be superior. But, our society is getting further and further away from Christianity.
4. I want to go back to Peter and Cornelius because in Cornelius’s presence, Peter said this: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).
5. God is the God of every culture. Jesus is the Savior of every culture. Peter here says that God shows no partiality. Godly wisdom does not show partiality (James 3:17). James had earlier said that when we choose to help one person over another person based on their looks, we are showing partiality (2:4). Paul told Timothy to do nothing by partiality (1 Tim. 5:21).
God does not show partiality (Gal. 2:6) - this is in the same context as the apostle Peter’s sin we are now considering. Again in Ephesians 6:9 - in the context of employer / employee relationships - Paul says that God shows no partiality. God will judge mankind without partiality (Col. 3:25). In that same context, Paul says there is no distinction in Christ between “Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).
6. It violates the golden rule. I don’t want people judging me simply based on superficial standards. “Oh, Paul’s a preacher. That means he is a hypocrite. He probably has a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.” I don’t want people pre-judging me. You don’t either. So, we should not.

So, Peter sinned because he was guilty - not of racism per se - but guilty of ethnocentrism. Peter had been eating with Gentiles but, Paul writes that when some Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem, from James, then Peter withdrew from the Gentiles and he “held himself aloof,” fearing the party of the circumcision (Gal. 2:12). Now, we do not know what role James had in this situation. Paul does not give us enough information. Here are some options:

1. James was guilty of racism, and therefore sin, himself. If that was the case, it sounds like James repented of that sin before he wrote his letter.
2. The people who came to Antioch claimed they were sent out by James, who was a “pillar” of the church in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:9).
3. The men who came from James were not practicing racism but Peter thought they did and before they arrived, Peter withdrew fellowship from the Gentiles.

There might be some other ways to interpret James’ role in this matter but that’s not relevant. What is relevant is what happens with Peter and his influence:

SIN ENCOURAGES MORE SIN - 2:13:
Notice what happened because of Peter’s sinful behavior - there were others, the rest of the Jewish Christians who joined Peter in his (notice) hypocrisy. Peter was preaching the gospel is for all but on this one occasion, he refused to practice the gospel. He refused to practice what he preached. As a result, he influenced many others to follow his same racist example.

Including Barnabas. Barnabas was carried away with the hypocrisy. Who would have ever tagged Barnabas as a racist? If you know anything about Barnabas, you would not have suspected Barnabas as being a racist. Barnabas was an encourager! Barnabas saw all men as equal in the eyes of God, even Saul of Tarsus was worth saving in the eyes of Barnabas.

When men from Cyprus and Cyrene established the church of Christ in Antioch (Acts 11:20), Gentile men and women started obeying the Gospel and the Christians thought it would be a good idea to send for Barnabas from Jerusalem to bring his encouragement to Antioch. Luke writes that Barnabas was a “good man” and “full of the Holy Spirit” and “full of faith” (Acts 11:24). Many, many Gentiles were brought to Jesus Christ.

But when Peter engaged in overt racism, it motivated Barnabas to be carried away by fear into hypocrisy and engage in racism as well.

It was a very serious situation and racism has a way of dividing up believers in Christ into bodies of believers that won’t have anything to do with each other.

THE SIN NEEDS PUBLIC CONFRONTATION - 2:11, 14:
Notice Peter’s position relative to Jesus Christ in verse 11: “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.”

I want to emphasize to you that that last expression: “he stood condemned” is extremely strong. It totally blows out of the water the idea that a Christian cannot sin in a way to be lost. If I were to translate this expression literally, Paul is saying that Peter “was in a position of having been condemned.” His sinful behavior, his racism, cut him off from having a relationship with Jehovah God. If Peter had died in that condition, he would have been separated from God forever!

That’s why Paul opposed Peter, to his face. Paul stood up to Peter and resisted his sinful behavior right to his face. Sometimes, we need to correct sin privately, behind the scenes. But sometimes, sinful behavior needs to be confronted publicly and this was one of those situations. Not only did Paul oppose Peter, confront Peter to his face but notice in verse 14:

“When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel” - that the gospel is for all - “I said to Cephas in the presence of all…” First, I want to point out that “were not straightforward” translates a verb that is only used here in the NT and it literally means “walking straight.” Peter, Barnabas, and all those who were following Peter’s example were not walking straight according to the truth of the Gospel. And because racism is so hateful and evil and dangerous to the church of Christ, this is one of those times when the situation required a public correction! Paul confronted Cephas “in the presence of all!” The whole church saw what was happening. Why? Because the whole church was in a situation where many, many people could be led to believe that it was okay to be racist and Paul had to stop that sinful behavior in its tracks.

Paul confronted Peter with his hypocrisy in verse 14: “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles…” In other words, Peter was beginning to realize in his own life that he was not obligated to obey the Law of Moses anymore. He was freed from the yoke of the Law of Moses and had replaced it with the yoke of the teachings of Jesus Christ. That being true, Peter, in essence, was living like a Gentile. I don’t know if Peter started eating pork, but he had quit offering animal sacrifices. He was living like a Gentile.

But, by his actions in withdrawing fellowships from the Gentiles, in essence, he was compelling Gentiles that they need to live like Jews. The reference probably is specifically to circumcision. That was the one aspect of the Law of Moses that caused the biggest controversy between Jews and Gentiles. Jews, even some Christian Jews, were saying that Gentiles needed to be circumcised, in essence, “become a Jew” in order to be saved. By Peter’s actions, he was suggesting that those Gentiles should have been circumcised before he could eat with them. In all of this, Peter was being a hypocrite and he was endangering the unity of the church of Christ as well as putting himself on a collision course with the wrath of God. It all needed to be stopped and stopped immediately.

BLACK LIVES MATTER:
So of course “black lives matter.” That is as true and self-evident as it is to say “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

We need to avoid racial stereotypes. We need to avoid jokes that are based on racial stereotypes. We need to carefully examine our own hearts and behavior and make sure that we are not prejudiced against someone simply because they are from a different race, different culture, or different ethnic group than we are. If we ever catch ourselves thinking, “Well, that person is from a certain race, he or she is not likely to do” such-and-such, then we might want to take a closer look at our hearts and see if our heart is not right with God. Peter’s example here shows that racism can cause us to lose our salvation.

Take home message: Every race is created in God’s image and deserves our love, respect, and acceptance.