Paul takes us back to the city of Antioch. Antioch was a city with a large Jewish population and one of the very first places Jewish Christians preached the gospel to Gentiles. We have to remember what a meal meant in their day and age. It was not just a meal, but it was fellowship. Remember how horrified people were that Jesus ate with sinners? A meal was a table of fellowship and it was a difficult place during the days of the early church to bring Jews and Gentile Christians together. 

Paul’s words are very serious about Peter who is referred to as Cephas in this passage. Cephas was the name given to him by Jesus because on this rock the Church will be built. Paul says he confronted Peter to his face because he stood condemned. Why did he stand condemned? Because he was living out a gospel that was against the one true gospel. When the circumcision party came to town Peter sided with them. He sided with them on the fact that in order to become a Christian you must be circumcised first. It was not only bad that Peter fell to this, but he brought others in the Jewish Christian community because of his status as an Apostle. Paul is showing the Galatians that there is no place for this in the Christian faith because it is against everything the gospel stands for. He is showing them that he has already protected this gospel even to Peter’s face himself. It is a lesson for our contemporary church that when our actions don’t match our beliefs there is something wrong. 

Put yourself in Paul’s shoes and how seriously he takes the gospel if he is willing to call out Peter publicly for his public sin. Paul is a protector of the true gospel and he cares for its purity of it. Adding anything to the gospel actually detracts from the beauty and purity of the gospel.