Laws for Cooking without Feeding the Hungry

Legalism, C.S. Lewis, and the Gospel

In Galatians 2, Paul alleges Peter is playing the hypocrite out of fear of the Judaizers in the church.

Peter would fellowship with Gentiles privately, but when the Judaizers came around, he refrained from any fellowship with the Gentile believers.

Paul was concerned that a cultural Jewish Identity was taking over the churches in Galatia.

Gentile believers in Jesus, unfamiliar with cultural Jewish rituals, were being forced to conform to the rituals of the Jews in the churches of Galatia.

Demands for cultural conformity in the church of Jesus Christ directly contradict the freedom that comes from the Good News of Jesus. Becoming a disciple of Christ requires no conformity to a national, cultural, or group identity.

Sons of the King are family, regardless of the differences.

Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. His Kingdom is global, eternal, and personal.

The King’s flag flying in the castle of your heart supersedes any national flag.

The King’s flag supersedes all cultural flags.

No follower of Jesus should be shunned for not conforming to the cultural preferences of a group of people within the church.

Yet, Peter was doing nothing about creeping cultural Jewish legalism in the churches of Galatia.

Paul spoke harshly to Peter about this.

“I opposed Peter to his face because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of some men from James, Peter used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing the Jewish Christians” - vs. 11-12.

The Jews who came into the churches of Christ in Galatia during Paul and Peters day had a comfortable culture to which they sought others to conform

The Judaizers were adding laws and regulations to the sweet fellowship that comes through simple faith and trust in the righteousness of Christ. 

Paul told Peter in no uncertain terms that he was obligated to confront the false teaching of the Jewish Identity crowd.

The Judaizers who believed in Jesus excluded from their fellowship those they felt didn't conform to the Jewish laws of circumcision, festivals, Sabbath customs, and other Jewish cultural regulation.

Modern evangelicals are susceptible to the same cultural temptations of the Judaizers in Paul and Peter’s day.

Churches enforce codes of culture, using those “in church authority” to articulate the principles and maintain discipline.

The church codes vary from time to time and from region to region, but they typically have cultural rules for how to live the Christian life: “Don’t drink. Don’t go to concerts. Don’t make your mistakes public. Don’t question those in spiritual authority. Don’t do this…Don’t do that…”

Concentrating on morality without focusing on the Gospel is like enforcing laws for cooking without feeding the hungry.

People need Jesus, not your rules.

The modern evangelical church may need a strong word of rebuke like that given by Paul to Peter.

There’s nobody better to give that rebuke than C.S. Lewis from his classic book Mere Christianity.