Inner Feuds

On this final day of the week and the eve of the last day in this month of June, we come, more advanced in knowledge and understanding of how feuds, big or small, are not of God. We have looked at feuds, not just in the light of wars, battles and such dramatically, aggressive responses, but we have also seen those, less dramatic and fatalistic. Nonetheless, before God, they are all displeasing. God does not see as we see or think as we think. What we abide with as manageable, or we accept as human nature and move on, God denounces.

We close by looking at ourselves and being totally honest about all we will hear, as Paul speaks to Cephas. May the Holy Spirit give you ears to hear in your own language, and receive personally, what is being said by brother to brother. May you and I not excuse ourselves, or raise up any haughtiness and utter blindness to truth.

Red, Stoplight! – Father God, please be merciful to me. Amen!

There is an inner feud going on in Cephas or Peter, as he is called, and it takes Paul to confront him with it. Who is Cephas? He is the disciple to whom Jesus has pronounced this service. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16: 18 NKJV. Know, that you too have been specifically and specially called by our Lord to be His temples in which His Spirit abides.

Peter had come to visit the growing Church at Antioch where Paul and others were serving. When Paul saw Peter he accused him as one condemned. Let me quote the Scripture, in your enabled hearing. 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 the 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 circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. Galatians 2: 11 - 13

Red, Stoplight! – Is there any hypocrisy in you? Is fear causing you to live a double life of service to God? STOP!

When Paul saw what his esteemed brother in Christ was doing, how he was not being true to their Crucified and Risen Lord and Master, Paul confronted him about his despicable actions.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2: 14 – 16.

Red, Stoplight! – Are there any double-standards in your actions? Are you preaching law and grace together? STOP!

Paul is doing some deep-seated reasoning, admonishing and chastening with Peter and bringing to his remembrance, how he Peter, Paul and every other born-again Jew, people of law, became a Christian.

But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. Galatians 2: 17 – 18.

Red, Stoplight! – Are you falling back into your previous ways? Are you, ever so subtly, rebuilding what you have broken down? STOP!

Free yourself from all inner strife. Follow Paul’s way to Jesus and in Jesus.

Die to the law that you may live for God.
Die with Christ so that you no longer live, but Christ lives in you.
Die to self and live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself for you.