11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 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.
The principle underlying this incident bears a very solemn and challenging message. The challenge of the cross is a radical one. It cuts across so many things, so many natural affections. It costs to remain true to it. It is easy, for heart's ease, to slip back from its total demand, and desire a compromise arrangement, and convince ourselves it will do - but the bloom of our spiritual life fades, and the edge goes off our witness and service. Let us ask ourselves quietly if this story discovers in our spiritual lives some area of compromise. Is there a level of living where once we were glad to be, costly as it was, and now we are no longer there? Does death 'work' in us now as once it used to work, when God used us and made us a blessing as instruments of His grace? What Paul said in effect to Peter, he also says to us: 'Get back, Peter, back to the cross, back to the highest you know, back to the place of fruitfulness'. What a picture this is! Peter was at the centre of the work, the honoured - and used - leader of the Church at Jerusalem, and yet he had slipped from a higher position to one much lower. And only one man saw he had done so, and - at what cost and with what pain we can only guess - helped him back.