Peter's Hypocrisy Reproved

It is good to remember the theme of this first chapter, which is, that the gospel which Paul preached was not of men, nor did he receive it from men. He received both the gospel, and his apostolic call from the risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself. One of the lines of argument being used by the Judaizers against the Apostle Paul was that Paul had not come under Peter’s authority; that is, his authority as representative of all the 12 apostles. The Judaizers were asserting that since this was so, the gospel which Paul preached was in error. They were asserting that Peter and the other Apostles were really on their side; that they believed that the works of the law were necessary to be added to the gospel if people were really going to be saved from their sins. But Paul knew that this was simply not true. Paul knew that what he needed to do was to show the churches at Galatia the truth of 2 things about Apostolic authority; 1st – The truth that there was parity among the Apostles of our Lord. 2nd - We need to understand the truth that Peter did fall into hypocrisy in his thinking and actions. This is what we want to look at this evening. May the Lord help us to have good views of Apostolic authority and the gospel of Jesus Christ.