Controversy was brewing in Antioch and Paul attacked it at the highest level. The gospel was being watered down, as we shall see in the next verses. However, here Paul takes on one of the reputed “pillars” of the church, none-other than Peter himself. As mentioned before, Paul often used Peter’s Hebrew name Cephas, rather than the name Jesus gave him, Peter. Was this done as a slight? That certainly is a possibility, but it could have been rather Paul’s way of emphasizing that Peter had not been acting faithfully in the gospel message. Paul’s adamant stand for the truth showed no respect for persons, because he had a clear understanding of his mission. The purity of the gospel message trumps all else, there can be no wavering, even if it came from an angel or himself or any man (1:8-10) … Peter is no exception.

In the history of Christendom, there has been much hype over Peter being the chief apostle, the “vicar of Christ” and having the keys to the kingdom. This has evolved into an elaborate pontificate with magisterial authority and pomp, complete with detailed canon law and sophistry. The ultimate ascension of the clergy/laity divide is supposedly traced to an “apostolic succession” of bishops, the foremost of which is the bishop of Rome, more well-known as the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, the so-called “Holy Father.” However, biblical support for this is quite lacking. In this case, Peter is called out for his hypocrisy in communicating the gospel. Further, nowhere in the NT record do we read of anyone giving Peter the primacy over the other apostles. True, Peter was given the keys to the kingdom (Matt 16:19a), but as was often the case, Peter was standing in for the other disciples. In fact, the “loosing and binding” authority given him (Matt 16:19b), was also given to all the apostles (Matt 18:18). Keys open doors, and historically we see that Peter (in some cases with John), opened the door of the gospel to Jews (Acts 2), the Samaritans (Acts 8) and the Gentiles (Acts 10). The Lord used a play on words in Matthew 16:18 telling Peter that his name was “stone” (Greek petros) and that Jesus would build His church on the “rock” (Greek petra). The church is built on rock-like faith, which Peter expressed so simply and clearly.

Therefore, when by his actions Peter denied the simple and clear gospel, Paul took him to task. No man dare tamper with the gospel message. Paul was unequivocal: Peter stood condemned!