Discipleship & Accountability

Join BOLD Church in 21 Days of Transtraumational Prayer

A journey to healing, deliverance and freedom, by grace through faith, to manifest the good, pleasing and perfect will of God in our spirit, soul and body.

Day 5- Galatians 2:11

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All right. So this evening I am coming out of Galatians chapter two, verse 11. So for some context, Paul has been talking with the disciples, with Jesus' other disciples. And basically they accept Paul as another disciple of Jesus, as another follower of Jesus. And he was able to fellowship with them. He was able to break bread with them. They had a good time. And so they recognized the gift that God had given to Paul. They accepted his co-workers, Barnabas and Titus. And so they encouraged him to continue preaching to the Gentiles while they preached to the Jews. Okay, so there's some context. So in verse 11, it says, But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised. But afterwards, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. So Peter is being two-faced and is leading others astray. So Peter basically came to where Paul was, where Paul was preaching to the Gentiles. And he is being two-faced. He's being a hypocrite. And Paul checks him on it. He calls him out on it immediately. And so how does this tie into today's prayer topic? Today's prayer topic is about business. We're praying for the business owners for business people. Well, Paul and Peter are in the business of Jesus. Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. And when you're conducting business, you're supposed to have integrity and treat all customers and clients the same way, no matter what's going on. You don't misrepresent what you're selling, the product, what you have, what you're offering to people, and you don't act fake in front of certain executives or leaders. Well, that's exactly what Peter did. He ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised. That's fine. But afterwards, when some friends of James came, Peter would not eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. And as a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. So Peter allowed fear to control his emotions, even though the word says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, power, love, and a sound mind. So what he should have done was cast down that fear in that moment and stayed the course. However, he allowed society, like a lot of us do in certain situations, to dictate his actions. And business owners do that as well. When society says, we don't like this product, or this is not designed the right way, or I didn't appreciate how you offered that to me. A lot of business owners can be tempted to change the way that they do things, to give on some of their uh core values and their core strengths. And that is not what we are supposed to do. No matter what adversity might come, we stand in the face of it and we stand exactly on what we believe, on what we have already been convicted to do, on what we've already been led to do. We stay the course. So when you are conducting business, do not allow fear of judgment or rejection to guide your actions, because that's how we end up making mistakes. So to continue on, the business owner piece, the word also says to be honest in all your dealings. So in Proverbs chapter 20, verse 10, Proverbs chapter 11, verse 1, and Hebrews chapter 13, verse 18, it also talks about business owners and how people are actually supposed to be honest in all of your dealings. And so if Peter is in the business of Jesus, then he is not being honest in his dealings. He's being hypocritical. And so he himself is not obeying the word from found in Proverbs, found in Hebrews. And so Paul says, when I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others. So Paul checks him. Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? A lot of us may seem like we want to isolate ourselves. And I'll just say us generically. If you are in business, if you are you know starting your own business, if you're working in business with somebody else, you don't always want to be accountable, or we don't always want to be accountable to other people. And honestly, we're supposed to surround ourselves with people that we can be accountable to, specifically so that they can correct us when we are wrong. And so that's exactly what Paul does. When I saw that they were not following the truth, I said to Peter, in front of all the others, since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? Paul is not being judgmental, he is correcting him in love. One, because Paul is actually doing what he's what the word is supposed to do, what you're what the word says he's supposed to do, what the message of Christ says they're supposed to do. You and I are Jews by birth, not sinners like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ, and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not. Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law. I stopped trying to meet all of its requirements so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So what happened in this moment? Everyone else that was there in the room with them had the opportunity to hear the message of Christ preached right then. Because not only is Paul correcting Peter, Paul is also taking the opportunity to tell what the actual true message is, what Jesus' intentions are. And that is for them to turn away from the law because you no longer have to keep it. It's impossible for us to be able to keep the law. Acknowledge the gift that God gave us in the in the form of Jesus. So my old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so now everyone present knows about the true business that they are supposed to be engaged in. Everyone around you should know what business you're engaged in. Everyone should know exactly what you are about. There should be no confusion about who Ms. Robin represents when she's in her sessions. There should be no confusion about who Miss Yvonne represents when she's teaching in the classroom. Your character, what you say, how you represent yourself. Everyone should be able to know what kind of business you're in. And so Paul explains that to them right then. And then verse 21 says, I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. You are only able to do the business that you're in by the grace of God. And if you conduct your business dishonestly, then we mock his sacrifice. What he's led you to do, you're doing it for a purpose. You're doing it on purpose. And he has graced you to be in that arena. But if you abuse that privilege, then you're mocking what he died for you to do to begin with. He gave his life so we might live ours to the full. And part of that is using what he blesses us with to bring glory to him. And so make sure that you conduct all of your business, no matter what you do. Yes, Cornicha, even if it's doing hair, even if you're in it, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. Everyone should know whose you are and who you represent by what comes out of your mouth. So Peter almost could have tanked the ministry of Jesus for every single individual in that room because of his fear. And thank God for Paul that he corrected him in love and told him exactly what he is supposed to represent and how he is supposed to represent.