12. What sin did Peter commit during a visit to Antioch, and what caused him to act in this way?

¹² Or consider another, somewhat different type of experience that occurred in Antioch. When the apostle Peter visited this city in Syria, he associated with the whole congregation, fearlessly eating and socializing freely in the homes of the Gentile believers. He knew that this was proper, since, years before, he had been divinely directed to preach to Cornelius, who became the first uncircumcised Gentile convert to Christianity. However, when some Jewish Christians, who came from Jesus’ half brother James in Jerusalem, visited Antioch, Peter, out of fear of criticism from “those of the circumcised class,” began withdrawing and separating himself from the Gentile Christians.

Peter knew that the Mosaic law was no longer in force, and had shown this earlier by freely associating with Gentiles. (Acts 10:28, 29) Yet now, because of fear, he was reinstituting the divisions provided for under the Mosaic law, but which Law he knew no longer applied to Jewish Christians. (Eph. 2:13-18) So his “withdrawing and separating” from the Gentile Christians was clearly a hypocritical act prompted by fear of what certain Jewish Christians, especially those of Jerusalem, might think of him.