March 25, 2020

Church conflicts are not fun. For pastors, leaders, members and attenders. It’s not fun for the body of Christ and it’s not good as a witness to a lost world around us. I remember serving at a church that had 6 multi-campuses where one of the campuses met in a large church building with only ¼ of the people filling up the sanctuary. Several of those people refused to give up their seats when half the sanctuary was blocked by curtains. Several of those people literally sat behind the curtains, not seeing the preacher, band or the rest of the congregation! Again, church conflicts are not fun. But as long as we live in a fallen world with fallen people, we will have them. We see one such conflict in verses 11-14.

In verses 13-14, we see how Peter was hypocritical concerning the gospel and how his conduct was not in step with the truths of it. Peter was telling the gentiles that they needed to continue to practice Jewish customs. This is why the apostle Paul tells this church that he opposed him face to face in verse 11. We need to remember that sometimes this is needed. In the church, we need to be willing to graciously call each other out with Gospel matters. Although conflict will happen, we must face it when we’re protecting the life-changing gospel message. Verses 15-21 show this even more. Paul shares how Christ died for us and we died with Christ and that we can’t save ourselves but are only justified through Jesus. We now live in Christ. We don’t have to live for the law, but trying to obtain salvation through the law goes against the grace given in the gospel (v. 21). That is a part of the purpose of the Gospel and why we must fight for it, even in uncomfortable conflicts concerning it.

By: Erik Koliser — West Campus Pastor