For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Gal. 2
What was Cephas’ hypocrisy? How did Paul stand up to him? When should you publicly oppose someone you respect? Keeping the peace is important. But it is critical to understand when and where peace is possible. Evil will never be at peace with truth. Thus, righteousness can never be at peace with evil. So when we deal with those who stray from the truth we need to distinguish being peaceful from appeasement. This is a tricky thing, however, which requires well practiced discernment. This is because there are many things that aren’t so much a matter of truth as they are of personal conviction or preference.
What Peter was doing, though, wasn’t that. Peter was avoiding the Gentile believers to appease the legalistic Jews. There are two things about Peter’s behavior that set it apart as appeasement rather than peacekeeping. First, keeping the peace among believers is about loving and being considerate of those who are weaker in faith. Perhaps you could say the legalistic Jews were weaker in faith. The problem, though, is that Peter’s actions were very UN loving toward the Gentile believers. Not good!
Second, and perhaps more telling, is that the people Peter was attempting to please stood in opposition to the truth of the gospel. The legalistic Jews were passing condemnation on those who were not following the practices and rituals of the law. What Paul points out is that we cannot be justified by the law AND by Christ. It has to be one or the other. It’s about where we put our faith.
Either we trust that we can only be made righteous through the righteous work of Christ or we trust in our own efforts by keeping the letter of the law. If we rely on the letter of the law at all, we are not relying fully on Christ. In fact, if we believe the law can make us righteous, we declare Christ’s work useless. But the truth is that our own efforts through the law have proven powerless to save anybody. That is why we have to die completely to the law – to set aside our own efforts – and put our faith fully in Christ.
2 Sam. 19-20
I don’t understand Joab. He told David after the death of Absalom, “You love those who hate you and hate those who love you.” (2 Sam. 19:6a). I think this was wise advice. David’s behavior here was similar to Peter’s that we read about in Galatians 2. He was putting his focus where there could be no peace at the expense of those with whom he should have been seeking it. But then, in chapter 20, he killed Amasa in cold blood.
This isn’t the only instance where we see either behavior out of Joab. He both gave David wise advice and killed in cold blood. When David handed the kingdom over to Solomon, Joab was one he commissioned Solomon to execute justice on. Yet David kept Joab in his close service for his entire life. David attempted to replace him a couple of times, but the effort was always thwarted. And there Joab remained. I am not at all sure what to make of all of it.
Ps. 61
As I read through this Psalm, I wondered about the meaning of David’s statement in verse 5. “You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.” (Ps. 61:5b). I thought maybe this referred to how we become joint heirs with Christ in God’s kingdom when we believe in Him. Then I remembered that David’s Psalms were prophetic. So I did what I often like to do. I looked at David’s words as if it was Jesus saying them. Interestingly, this statement then becomes a reference to us, as the body of believers, being God’s gift to Jesus. We are His inheritance. Kinda cool.