Peter was sent in an amazing step-by-step way to preach to the Gentiles and see them fully embraced by God Himself as they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). His mind was changed, but a lifetime of cultural shaping about non-Jews had to be confronted in an unpleasant way (Galatians 2:11-14). The multi-language evangelism at Pentecost should have told him, but emotionally he was not there to fully embrace Gentiles if his Jewish brethren were in the room. I grew up being taught that the sanctifying baptism of the Spirit cured everything in the life of the believer; it doesn’t. Peter’s own baptism of the Holy Spirit did not cure him; he needed the unpleasant confrontation of a fellow Spirit-filled believer to begin to allow the Spirit to infuse his cultural mis-teaching with more holy instruction. There were formative things that needed to happen for Peter, even Barnabas, and I expect Paul too, over time, to cure their prejudices. It is true for us also; our spiritual formation, our sanctification, is a process that takes a lifetime to shape us to this universal gospel until it is fully embraced in our minds, will, and emotions.
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Galatians 2:11–14a ESV)
{From “Sonlight for the Soul”, by H. Lamar Smith)
