The Problem of Hypocrisy

Galatians 2:11-14

Intro: Talk about how thankful you are to be back in Oregon, thankful for the prayers thankful for all those who have been praying, talk about the Honduras trip, about how God used many people in that trip to get to know Him. Talk about your desire to be more involved with the Church and how God has convicted you to make more time for them.

Reason: For the last few months you feel like you have been doing well spiritually. You have had convictions in your life that led you away sin. You have decided to let go of several strongholds in your life that have been truly holding you back from fully accepting the love and joy of what it is to be a Christian. But then one day you get a text, and although you won’t say who this text is from, you were called a hypocrite. You were called superficial. All because of something that you used to do but don’t do anymore. And this all happened in the past few weeks, and it’s amazing to know how quickly God can humble us. This text really made me reflect on my life. It really made me driven to know if I truly was a hypocrite. If I truly was living the life that I said I was living. And as I was reading God’s word God showed me that there are many examples in the Bible about what it means to be a hypocrite and to be honest there are several different types of hypocrites used in different contexts throughout the new testament, and we’ll get to some of them but for right now I want you to ask yourself this question in your head //“Am I a hypocrite?”//

With that I’d like to share with you three different definitions from three different contexts throughout the NT that describe the word hypocrite.

And the first definition I’d like to give you is found

in Mat 7:1-5 ““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Although this verse was mainly focused on the Pharisees, this verse can also be used to warn Christians that being judgmental must be done with extreme caution, but nonetheless can still be used. This verse is implying that when two people who claim to be Christians, have something to say about their fellow brother or sister, to first examine themselves for any sin before coming down and judging them for the sin that you see in them. In other words the definition of this type of hypocrisy is //condemning another person when you yourself are guilty of consistent sin.//

The second definition i’d like to give you about hypocrisy is found in Mat 23:13 ““But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

This verse is one of the 7 woes that Jesus was proclaiming to the Pharisees and it is talking about those who //claim to be believers but truly have not come to believe. Who say they are something that they are truly not.// These can be equivalent to modern day Jehovah Witnesses who come to our doors and proclaim a false gospel and literally slam the door shut on anyone who truly wants to know Christ when they themselves aren’t going in but are going straight to hell. This is the worse type of hypocrisy.

And the last definition of hypocrisy is //any time that our conduct is not in step with the truth of the gospel//. And that is where i’d like for you to open up your bibles for todays reading. Galatians 2:11-14

Read.

Galatians 2:11–14 ESV

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Pray.

Context: So as a bit of context, this letter was written to the Galatians around 48 A.D. There was this group of people called the Judaizers. Now these Judaizers were false teachers who were Jews, and were basically going around telling everyone in the Galatian church who were gentiles that Paul was not an apostle, and that in order to be saved you must accept Jesus AND, be circumsized, follow the mosaic law and keep all these religious cerimonies. They were trying to make Jews out of Gentiles, thats why they were called the Judaizers. Therefore, Paul wrote this letter in order to do two things.

To defend his apostleship

To bring the early christians, back from a life of bondage into freedom in Christ Jesus.

Now, somewhere along the way, Paul and Barnabas meet (somewhere between Acts 4 and 9), and Paul and Peter meet (Galatians 1:18), now we don’t know exactly when or why Peter decided to visit Antioch but bible scholars believe Peter went to Antioch soon after Barnabas, Paul and Titus returned to Antioch from Jerusalem. Okay, so here we are, lets read verse by verse.

Galatians 2:11 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.”

The phrase “to his face” literally means to faced him down, meaning that Paul got face to face with Peter in front of everyone. It was a really dramatic scene. The word condemned doesn’t mean that Peter is not saved, in this context it means that he rather has been found guilty for a certain sin.

Verse 12 and 13 Gal 2:12-13 “For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”

Now when Peter came to Antioch, he was eating with the Gentiles there with Barnabas and other Jews, and for a while there was a beautiful display of how both Gentiles and Jews can come together and enjoy a meal. Remember this was still in a time where many Jews did not associate themselves with Gentiles, but what Jesus did on the cross was more than just salvation, it was also to demonstrate Gods love not only for the Jews but also for us, the gentiles.

So everything was good for awhile until a group of Jews came to town that claimed to be disciples of James (the Lords brother) and they were from the circumcision party also known as the Judaizers. We don’t know if James knew that these group of Jews had become Judaizers somewhere along the way, and it’s doubtful that James would be in agreement to their way of thinking. But the bible does say that these men were from the circle of James.

Now, we must understand that it was a big deal for many Jewish people to suddenly stop their traditions like not eating pork, and keeping the Sabath. And although the bible says that’s okay to do if you are born Jew and want to keep following the Jewish traditions, but what the Bible doesn’t teach is that every single person in order to have a relationship with Jesus must be circumsized and follow the Jewish dietary restrictions. That’s not what the bible teaches. But that’s what the Judaizers believed and somewhere along the way, these Jews told Peter, “Hey why are you sitting with the Gentiles? Why are you eating pork? And Peter, instead of saying “Well God told me that it was okay to eat whatever is common (Acts 10:9-15) what did Peter do? He slowly, stopped eating with the Gentiles for what? For fear.

And that’s what “drew back” means, it’s more of a slow progression. Peter didn’t just stop eating with them all of a sudden, it was gradual process. Perhaps Peter is eating with them for a couple days, then only one day of the week then finally not sitting with them at all. Little by little Peter stopped eating with them. I think it is interesting because, back in those days who you ate with said a lot about you and your character (He eats with sinners) (Mark 2:16) So who you ate with said a lot about you, and to the minds of the Judaizers, Peter eating with Gentiles was not okay.

Peter was influenced so much by these false teachers that even Barnabas was led astray. Peter had influence, after all Jesus said to Peter that what? (Let them answer… on this rock i will build my church (Mat 16:18). So of course Barnabas was going to eventually follow Peter. And that is where Paul probably had enough, because at that point, Peter with his actions was essentialy “There are two bodies of Christ, one made up of gentiles, and the other made up of Jews, and that is heresy.

So what did Paul do in reaction to this?

Verse 14 Gal 2:14 “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?””

Now here is a man who is a prominent leader of the church, who spent time with Jesus who walked with Jesus for 3 years, who was obviously zealous for the Lord and has even defended his faith in front of Jewish officials in the past (Acts 11:18) being yelled at by this man who has also spent time with Jesus and was a prominent founder of many churches and wrote half of the new testament. Here is Paul essentially rebuking Peter to his face, looking straight into his eyes in front of everyone and calling him a hypocrite.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was to be called out like Peter was I would be so upset. Now share about when your sister texted you in the morning, after feeling like you have just started to get right with God. And how He used that to continue to show you how much of a sinner you still are and to rely more and more on His grace. And although she might as well have, you want to take this opportunity to apologize to first God and then to the church, specifically about Kyla. Don’t go into detail, but just know that you weren’t doing everything right.

Now, the bible doesn’t say how Peter reacted. But I want us to think about this for a moment.

How should we as Christians react when someone judges us and or calls us hypocrites?

Take a moment to thank God. Be thankful that he has allowed this situation to happen, because ultimately He will guide you through this by prayer.

Ask God if this trial comes from Him or from the enemy. This is very important. If it’s from the enemy don’t just dismiss it because there still may some truth to what was said. If it is from God take the time to thank Him for reveling your hypocrisy to you. And ask Him to guide you in what He wants you to learn or to change and He will reveal that to you.

Thank the person for letting you know what you need to work on and ask them if there is any areas in their life that may need correcting. Because what does the bible say about correcting our brother? What must we first do? We must first examine ourselves and if necessary, remove the log in our own eye. We must be extremely careful before we go about judging other believer's. Now I don’t know if Paul examined himself, before opposing Peter. I hope that he did but i’m not sure.

Again, the bible doesn’t say what Peter said in response to Pauls rebuke, but he could have easily said “Paul, you are a murderer. You, a murderer of the saints come to me and try to tell ME that i’m doing something wrong by eating with Jews simply because I am eating with Jews? Peter could have easily said that.

And us, when someone calls us out for something that we have done, how quickly are we to get defensive? But see thats where pride takes over. Please ask God for guidance before reacting.

Conclusion: I want to end with this. Peter was a strong and prominent leader of the Church and he made a critical mistake. He was influenced by fellow Jews out of fear to say with his actions that there are two bodies in Christ when in fact there is one. Peter, sinned. Peter acted one way when his fellow Jews weren’t around but someone completely different when they were around. And I’d like to ask you a question. Do we do the same?

Are we different people when we leave this church and go back home? Are we different people when our family comes to town who don’t know the Lord? God needs men and women who are consistant. Who are consistant in every environment of their lives, in work, in school in the grocery store and in our homes.

We all know how the story ends for Peter. Peter did not let that moment define him or his walk with Christ. He repented of his sin and continued to fight the good fight and ended up becoming one of the most influential leaders the Church of Christ has ever known, and that can be our story also.

So in the beginning I asked you to ask yourselves a question. Am I a hypocrite? Well the answer can better stated “has there been times when my conduct has not been in step with the truth of the gospel?” And I hope that all of you said yes. In that that way we are all hypocrites. But that’s exactly why Christ came. He came to forgive us of our sin of hypocrisy and is working through you to make you more like Him.

Lets pray.