Introduction: Two men who lived in a small village got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage’s home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You’re absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You’re absolutely right." Afterward, the sage’s wife scolded her husband. "Those men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That’s impossible—they can’t both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You’re absolutely right."
Some people really like to avoid a conflict. I should know because I’m one of them. But conflict is a fact of life, in fact many have made the point that conflict, even within the Church is a sign of life--evidence of the fact that people really care. And avoiding confrontation is often a recipe for even greater conflict and pain.
Interrogative: The important question is, how do we manage conflict appropriately within the fellowship of the church.
Transition: The passage we read this morning from Galatians is the record of one of the best known conflicts in the early church and in it I see a model for how we should deal with controversy among believers. First, I’d like us to consider the source of conflict and then we’ll look at the soloution to conflict. First let’s look at the source
1. The Source of Conflict
A. Fear
v. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
You know what’s really amazing about what happens here between Paul and Peter? It’s that it’s Peter. Peter, who was the first of the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the gentiles. Peter, who had a special revelation from God in a dream, making it clear to him that God had chosen to pour his grace out upon the gentiles making them clean by the blood of Christ. Peter, who stood before the council at Jerusalem and defended the baptism of Gentiles. How could Peter of all people have been snared and caused a conflict over an issue that should have been long settled for him?
There is a principle here that all of us would do well to heed. It is often at the places in our lives we consider strengths that the enemy will trip us up. We become complacent. The Scripture says take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.
Paul tells us that fear was the key to Peter’s downfall. Fear of what? Of being thought less of, of losing influence? I don’t know, but clearly not fear of God, but fear of men.
And so in conflict even today this fear of what others might think is so often at the heart of conflict, motivating the behaviors and the hurtful words that fuel our controversies. And what is the behavior at the source of conflict...
B. Hypocrisy
v. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher. King Louis demanded, "What does this mean?" Fenelon replied, "I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king."
Peter was not prentending to serve God for the sake of others but he was pretending that He didn’t associate with the non-law-keeping gentile believers when the law-observant Jews came to visit. Imagin the impact of this behavior on these believers. Yesterday they were OK company but apparently now that the real Christians, the Jewish Christians were here they were persona-non-grata.
What genuinely makes this hypocrisy is the fact that Peter was clearly acting in a way contrary to the belief that he held. It wasn’t that he was siding theologically with the Judaizers, he simply didn’t want them to think less of him.
Hypocrisy, it’s hurtful to people, it discredits the cause of Christ.
There is one final thing in the mix of the source of conflict...
C. Legalism
v. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
The specific issue of controversy here was legalism. The belief that being truly Christian requires adherence to an external set of standards. I’d like to tell you that after Peter and Paul got this issue straightened out between them it ceased to be a problem, but unfortunately that’s not the case
One young man asked "I am in earnest about forsaking ’the world’ and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?" . "Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don’t eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work."
Does this answer sound absurd? It is the answer given in the most celebrated Christian schools of the second century! Elizabeth Elliot asks "Is it possible that the rules that have been adopted by many twentieth-century; Christians will sound as absurd to earnest followers of Christ a few years hence?" (Elizabeth Elliot, The Liberty of Obedience, Nashville, Abingdon, 1968, pp. 45-46.)
Richard Foster, one of the foremost Christian authors on the topic of Spirtual Disciplines asks us to "Consider the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, an influential entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the caved in. He pulled and managed to make his body fit. As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."
"Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is a wooden legalism which destroys the soul."
These twisted legalistic standards, which come not from the heart of God, but from the desire of men for conformity and a checklist by which to measure the effectiveness of our religion have over the years been the source of virtually every conflict great and small in the church.
This is not to say that people’s lives shouldn’t be changed by the Gospel, they should and they are. It’s simply to say that we do not hold the measuring rod, only God does. Sometimes that change in others when they come to know the Lord is fast and far, other times it seems dreadfully slow and never goes quite far enough to satisfy us, but God doesn’t work that change in other people’s lives just to satisfy us.
And our demand that others satisfy us is so often the source of conflict--and it’s insidious because virtually always when we fall in this trap we are so certain that we are the defenders of truth, justice and the Christian way, when in reality we are doing no better than those who demanded that any real Christian should only bathe in cold water.
So these are the sources of Conflict Fear, Hypocrisy and Legalism, what is the...
2. Soloution to Conflict
A. Confrontation
v. 11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, was talking to a reporter about a player’s mistake in practice. He said, "We never let an error go unchallenged. Uncorrected errors multiply." Then the reporter said, "Isn’t there benefit in overlooking one small flaw?" Shula said, "What is a small flaw?" I think about that all day long. What is a small flaw? I see that with my children. I’ve let a lot of things slide by because I was too tired. I didn’t want another confrontation. But uncorrected errors do multiply. You’ve got to face them some day. You might as well face them on the spot. If I could do it over again with my children, I’d face the errors on the spot. It’s easier on them and on you. That works in relationships with anyone. If there’s something under the surface, something you sense, you might as well just bring it right out. Face it right then. (Marabel Morgan in Homemade, February 1987.)
Many of us fear confrontation, but without it wounds fester. When there are genuine problems in the body we have a responsibility to begin the process of healing by confronting the issue. My only caution here, and it is a BIG ONE, is be sure that you are on the right side of the issue. Make sure that you have prayed and searched the scriptures and make sure that it is not an issue that is simply a matter of personal preference.
Make sure you’re not the one arguing for the law against grace. Where there are issues that aren’t really sin that are causing a problem for you, pray and ask God to change your heart or to show you a loving way to be a good teacher and example to the brother or sister whose difference from you causes a problem.
In all cases confrontation must be done with the...
B. Truth
vv. 15-16 "We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
v. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Paul deals with the problem by reminding Peter of the Truth He already knows. Before you jump into confrontation, study to know the truth, study to understand the truth and not just to construct a good argument from Scripture. Scripture is sharp as a two edged sword, but some who use the knife are surgeons and others are butchers.
When we confront error with truth we must do it according to the Scriptural admonition to speak the truth in Love. If we do this it will lead to the final step in the soloution to conflict...
C. Reconciliation
2 Peter 3: 15-16 "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
At the end of his life Peter looks to Paul not as a rival but as a dear brother and he acknowledges Paul’s apostleship and the fact that Paul’s letters are in fact Holy Scripture. Confrontation with the truth, in a spirit of humilty and prayer and love does not divide, it unites.
As we come together to the Lord’s table today I’d like to share a different Passage than I normally do, one which emphasizes the unity that the Lord’s supper represents.
1 Cor 10:16-17 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
(For Communion we used large wafers and had people break them up and share. I also invited anyone with a conflict with someone to go and share their wafer with that individual)
