What should we do when we see false teaching?
Text: Galatians 2:11-21
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2025 CrossTalk Global
Brian: Some of the people that we admire the most are those who have demonstrated great courage in the service of others at great personal risk to themselves. Consider Harriet Tubman, living in America in the 1800s. She personally escaped from slavery and then risked her life by returning to the south numerous times to help other enslaved people escape to freedom in Canada through the Underground Railroad. Oskar Schindler was a German businessman who saved the lives of over 1,000 Polish Jews during the Holocaust by hiring them in his factories, risking his own life and fortune to save others. Or consider September 11, 2001. On that day, 19 terrorists from Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes. They deliberately crashed two of the planes into the upper floors of the World Trade center and a third plane into the Pentagon. Who were the heroes of that day? The first responders who sacrificed their lives to save others trapped in the burning buildings, and the passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, who fought back against the hijackers and deliberately crashed their plane into an empty field in Western Pennsylvania to save the lives of others. Heroes are rare because heroism can be costly and is always dangerous. Join Kent Edwards, Nathan Norman and Vicki Hitzges as they discuss one of the most heroic acts of the New Testament through the lens of Galatians, chapter 2, verses 11 through 21. Welcome to Crosstalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, Dr. Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzges and Nathan Norman continue their discussion through the book of Galatians. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Galatians, chapter 2, verse, verses 11 through 21, as we join their discussion.
Kent: Brian just mentioned heroes, but have you known heroes? Have you had heroes in your life, People who have demonstrated courage in the service of others?
Vicki: Have you, Nathan, something come into your head?
Nathan: Yeah, there's a few. You know, you go back to your parents, right? You know, I think of my dad and I know the way he sacrificially lived in the service and then meeting some of some of the people when he was in the military. And I don't know the full story, but I remember we were in Washington D.C. and we visited one of the war memorials that had the names of some of the fallen soldiers. And my dad, not a terribly emotional guy, but we went and found a name on the wall on the memorial and. And he. We spent a lot of time there and from all I've been able to put together, that is someone who sacrificed his life so that my dad could be here today, so that I could exist.
Vicki: That would touch. That would touch your heart.
Kent: Yeah, yeah.
Nathan: You know, and then you go, I go, you know, I know my dad, when he was in the service, he made decisions and pushed against decision, bad decisions that were made in order to preserve life, often against his commanding officers. And, you know, it's huge. I know in my life. Growing up as a teenager, I was sick for a period of five years, and my mom pretty much put her whole life on hold to bring me to doctor's appointments to take care of me, you know, where she wasn't working, where our income as a family dropped, you know, and I. She never held that over me. She never said, oh, you know, wasn't for this. If it wasn't for you, I could do this, I could have that. She just sacrificed so that I could. So I could get better.
Vicki: I think about my mother doing about just precious things. Just precious things. When my dad was president of a school, some faculty members went to Africa and I wasn't there. I'm telling you this secondhand years ago. But they. They came upon a group with guns, and they were in a dangerous situation. And there was a female faculty member who did not like my dad, and they were afraid they were going to get shot. And another faculty member told me that my dad just quietly stepped in front of that female faculty member so that if there was shooting, he would get shot and she wouldn't.
Nathan: Wow.
Vicki: I know. And I think I would have just carefully pushed her in front of me thinking, oh, good, you're just about the right size. Ivy.
Nathan: You know what an image of Jesus, right? Not many people would die for a good man. But who would die for their enemy?
Vicki: Who would die for their enemy? And he would. He was just so good.
Kent: We see heroism today. We see it through the ages, and we'll certainly see it in the book of Galatians today. Over the past few weeks, we've seen the damage that's caused by misguided Bible teachers who claim that salvation depends on trusting Christ. But also following the Old Testament law, that's clearly wrong. But how should we respond to false teaching? Paul shows us how in order to do so, we need to have credibility before the situation even occurs. We need to develop the credibility to address a difficult situation. The credibility we need. Well, first, people need to understand that we, like Paul in chapter one, preach only God's word. The ideas that we have the sermons that we preach, the Bible studies we lead, they're God's ideas, not ours. Secondly, we gain credibility when people see that what we preach aligns with the teachings of the Church's spiritual leaders. They acknowledge we're orthodox, we're people under authority. We're not trying to break stuff. We want to continue the church to grow in health and strength. But the third and final way we can earn credibility, as we're going to see in the latter part of chapter two, is to be known as someone willing to step into the breach whenever false teaching threatens a church and having the courage to speak truth to power. We see that in Paul's life in Galatians 2:11, don't we?
Vicki: It says in verse 11, When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
Kent: That is a powerful statement.
Nathan: Now Cephas is Peter, for those of you following along at home.
Kent: And when he came to Antioch, Paul says, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. That is strong language. Direct, openly, man to man, a public rebuke. I think this shows enormous courage. This is Paul publicly taking on Peter and calling him out. I mean, think about that. Paul calling out Peter. Peter was one of Jesus first disciples, right?
Nathan: That is correct. He calls him Cephas here because he's the head.
Kent: So Peter not only committed his life wholly to Jesus, among the very first, he was with Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount. That would have been pretty impressive. I'd love to be there. Peter was there. Peter witnessed Jesus healings as his ministry continued. He was with him for all three years. He saw Jairus daughter raised from the dead. He saw Lazarus raised from the dead. For crying out loud. Peter literally walked on water. That's pretty impressive credentials Peter has, that is. And remember Jesus said when Peter confessed that he was the Christ, that you're the rock on who I will build my church. That's a pretty strong endorsement. And In Acts chapter 2, Peter preached a pretty good sermon, don't you think?
Nathan: Was it 3,000 people?
Kent: 3,000 people came to the Lord. That's better than Paul ever did. As far as I can tell. This is Peter. I mean, this is the giant of the church.
Nathan: And he saw Jesus transformed. He saw Jesus divinity in the transfiguration, Right?
Kent: He was invited up to the mountain to witness that. And who's Paul? What's his background? Well, he was a Pharisee. And you know what Jesus thought about Pharisees?
Vicki: And he killed Christians.
Kent: And he killed Christians. He held the coat when Stephen died.
Nathan: It's like when you fill out the resume. Have you been convicted of any felonies Peter didn't have? Check mark. Yes.
Kent: No. I mean, it was. I mean, look at their pedigree. I mean, Paul can say, I saw Christ, the resurrected Christ, and that's true, but he didn't spend three years with it.
Nathan: Well, he was rebuking me.
Kent: And said that I will have to suffer for him. You know, this takes real courage for Paul to stand up to the possibly the greatest figure of the first century church and say, you are condemned. You are wrong.
Vicki: Why did he say that? Because he stood condemned.
Kent: Well, because we read in verse 12.
Vicki: Well, I'll take that up. It says, before certain men came from James, he used to eat with 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. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray.
Kent: Okay, so Paul's pretty clear that Peter was a hypocrite. That's a pretty strong word. And to understand why he would say that, we need to understand some of the context. The meals that are mentioned here would have been the traditional agape meals that in the first century and even today in many Asian churches, would follow immediately after Sunday worship service. So they'd have a service and afterwards they'd all get together and share a meal together. Kind of a what we would call a potluck meal, where various people brought food from home and shared it with the group. And at the very end, they would all celebrate the Lord's Supper together. So while Peter was in Antioch, of course, initially at least, he was all part of these gatherings. He initially partook of all the food and mingled with the congregation. But people who belong to the circumcision group, the same group that in the Council of Jerusalem, who in Acts 15:5 argued that the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses, that same group were now in Antioch. And now this group focused on food. Why would they focus on food? Why would they be fighting over what they would eat? Well, because this circumcision group knew that dietary rules were prominent in the Old Testament, weren't they?
Nathan: Right. There were some very clear dietary laws that Moses prescribed in the Old Testament. Like in Leviticus 11:47 said, you must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures. That may be eaten and those that may not be eaten. And this was part of your faithfulness to follow the one true God in the Old Testament. And so you see an example of that in Daniel. Daniel, when he was taken into captivity and he was to be trained in the courts of Babylon and given all kinds of defiled food. In Daniel 1, chapter 1, verse 8, he says, Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way.
Kent: So when he chose not to defile himself by being careful what he ate. What does the word defile mean?
Nathan: To make yourself unclean.
Kent: So it was sin? Yeah, it was absolutely disobedience. And he didn't want to do that. So the Old Testament was very clear and the circumcision group carried over for today but. Or for their day. But the rabbinical writings handed down through the generations went further than the Old Testament did. Of course, Jews could not purchase forbidden meats. But if a gentile shopkeeper also sold forbidden meat in his shop, so he had kosher and non kosher food available, then they weren't allowed to buy anything from the shop, because who knows what that kosher meat might have touched and they wouldn't want to defile themselves. They also stressed the washing of hands before eating, not for any hygienic reasons, but out of fear lest those hands that had been contaminated by contact with non kosher food might have touched their meat. They didn't want to get close to a gentile because they weren't pure. So for that reason, the people in the circumcision group wouldn't eat with the gentile Christians because who knows what they touched? They might be defiled. And over time, even Peter felt uncomfortable eating with them, as did Barnabas. And so Paul lays into Peter for that, and he says to them in verse 14, he says, when I saw.
Vicki: That they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, you are a Jew and yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Kent: Wow. What. What silent message would sitting in different dining rooms send to the Gentiles who are there?
Nathan: When we were in high school, there was a section of the cafeteria that was for seniors only. Ooh. And, you know, every. And, and here's the thing though. They could invite people in.
Kent: Seriously?
Nathan: Oh yeah, yeah. So if you got invited into the senior only dining Area, man, you were. You were it.
Vicki: You were cool.
Nathan: You were cool. And if you didn't or you got disinvited. Oh, that was. That was brutal. Right? Yeah. You knew who was in, who was out, who was cool, who was not. There was definitely, definitely that cool table vibe thing going on. I have never been invited to sit at the cool table. So I understand what it's like to be the Gentiles in this situation where the apostles are over here in the corner having their meal, and you're just over there like. Well, I guess I'm just happy to be in the room. I could never hope to sit at the table with the likes of you. I don't know, Vicky, do you ever run into that where you were, you know, excluded out of the pecking order?
Vicki: Oh, I've been in. I've been out. It's. You don't want to be out. That's not. That's not where you want to be.
Nathan: I only know what it's like being out.
Kent: What it's like.
Nathan: What's it like being in?
Vicki: Oh, it's not as cool as you'd think, but you definitely want to be there and not out.
Nathan: It's not that great, but it could be worse.
Kent: What was going on in this church was terrible. It reminds me a lot of segregation between blacks and whites decades ago in America. Wasn't that awful?
Nathan: Right. And you had the slogan separate but equal.
Kent: Yes.
Nathan: Which was absolutely not true.
Kent: But black people couldn't sit in restaurants with white people. They couldn't use the same restrooms as.
Nathan: The white people, couldn't stay in the same hotels, couldn't sit in the same places on the bus, couldn't use the same water fountains.
Kent: That is awful. That is discrimination at its worst. It's bad enough in secular society, but when it happens in the church, and that's what was happening, there was one class that were Jews and a much lower class that were Gentiles, and they were eating in separate rooms. And remember, this was taking place in Antioch. What is the significance of this church being in Antioch?
Nathan: Yeah, it was a major cultural and commercial hub, second only to maybe Alexandria. So it was wealthy, it was sophisticated, and it was where Christians were first called Christians.
Kent: So there were tons of. Of Greek people who were there. Tons of gentiles were in there.
Nathan: Probably the most impressive people that are being shunned and put to the side. You're not good enough sit at the pool table.
Kent: So when they went to church, it was almost like me getting onto an airplane. I don't know how many of our listeners fly that often. I find myself across talk flying equipped fair bit. But when I come down the gangplank to enter into the plane, there's one phrase I desperately want to hear. I want the attendant to tell me, turn left, turn left, because left is where first class is. First class gives me lay down seats or would give me a nice meal on the plane. But they always say to me, turn right, Kent, turn right. And one of my questions I want to ask God is, is why would you give me this ministry that takes me around the world and make me 6 foot 6 sitting in a coach seat? I have no room for my legs, no room for. But this is what happened to them. When people came into church, some were told, you can turn left into first class. And some of you will go to coach because you're not quite the same as the rest of us. And Paul will have nothing of it. And he stands up and he gives a lecture to Peter in front of everyone.
Vicki: Oh, he's hot too. We who are Jews by birth, and that's him, he was like, ta da, Jew. We who are Jews by birth know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. Because by the works of the law no one will be justified. I died to the law so that I might live for God. I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Wow, Weasel.
Kent: Can you imagine the look on Peter's face while this is going on? I think it drained color. I think he turned white. I think he was ashamed. I think he was embarrassed because he was one of those in Acts 15 that when Paul came sometime before and presented his teaching of justification by faith, he was endorsed by these very leaders. He was endorsed by Peter himself, remember? And now he had turned away from the doctrine that was central to the church and that he believed but didn't practice.
Vicki: Well, I wonder why he quit believing justification by faith and fell back to works.
Nathan: I've been thinking about this. If I were Peter, and I'm just saying if it were me, if I was in that position, I can 100% see how this happens. You have these influential, powerful Jewish people, my own people, and they come into the church and now I'm thinking, okay, we might be able to win them for Christ. And so I am now Trying to impress them. Right? I've all of a sudden put myself under their authority because I'm impressed by them. I want them. And I'm going to bend over backwards. Not saying I've ever done this in my pastorate before, but I 100% have. I bend over backwards because I want that person as part of our team. Right? And so he knows, okay, if I eat with the Gentiles, this is going.
Kent: To be a barrier.
Nathan: This is going to embarrass them. And maybe further down the way, once they accept Jesus and once they become more mature, we can fix that. And so I am willing to make this concession now in the hopes that down the road, they'll become fully mature followers of Christ. Right. And so I could totally justify that. But it's wrong. But it's wrong.
Kent: Think of the courage Paul had to stand in front of all these people and say this to Peter and everyone else at the same time. Why is it so difficult to speak truth to power?
Vicki: Because they're powerful. It's hard to go up against power.
Kent: Because.
Nathan: They can ruin your life.
Kent: They can ruin your life. They can say things about them that will curtail or end your career.
Vicki: And they had everybody on their side in this circumstance. All the Jews agreed with.
Kent: All the Jews seemed to have agreed. Yeah, they were all taking that position, even though it was contrary to the essence of the Christian faith. No, we don't want to. We tend to shy away. At least I would. I'm tempted to shy away from speaking truth to power.
Nathan: I was listening to a podcast a number of years ago, and it was about whistleblowers and people who blew the whistles on these big organizations for the things that they were doing. And the amazing thing was, I don't remember the exact statistical number, but when interviewed after these whistleblowers blew the whistle and they were shown to be right and they were justified and they were vindicated and all this stuff. And when they were asked if they had to do it over again, would they do it? The vast majority of them said that they wouldn't. Even though they knew they were right, even though they know they saved lives, even though they know they helped fellow workers, they said they wouldn't because the personal emotional cost was incredibly high. Because it is. That's why it's so hard to speak truth to power. There is going to be a price that you are going to pay.
Kent: Some of our listeners may be thinking, yeah, well, how does Jesus tell us to respond to the sin of a fellow Christian? I mean, Paul does this. But what was Jesus counsel? And Vicki, you remember Matthew 18:15, when he tells us specifically what we are to do?
Vicki: It says, if your brother or sister sins, go and point out their faults. Just between the two of you. Don't make this a grandstand play, Paul. If they listen to you, he says, you've won them over.
Kent: So why didn't Paul take Jesus advice?
Vicki: Probably he didn't because it wasn't just him and Peter. The whole church was infected. So he went to everybody. But he went to. To everybody. He just. He didn't just go one on one on one on one. He went to the whole church, which was. Yeah, yeah. Because every. Everybody needed to hear what he had to say.
Nathan: Right. Well, and Peter had this public ministry. It's not like Peter privately offended Paul. Right. It was a personal thing. And because that's what Jesus is talking about in that text, it's about personal offenses between me and you. But versus, like, if we did or something on this podcast, which we are broadcasting out to the public for, frankly, it's fair game. Right. We're making this public podcast. I preach publicly, and so if I say something that's wrong or harmful or anti biblical, it's fair game. And it does need to be addressed in that same manner in which it was made. Right. Publicly, of course. Right. Versus when we're off camera. And I said, this has happened before where I've been having a conversation with Vicki. And then I'd said something, and then the next morning I'm like, I shouldn't have said that. And I've called or texted you, Vicki, and been like, you know what? I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have used that term. I'm sorry. Right. It didn't become a public thing. It would have been wrong if, like, Vicky goes on social media and says, hey, you know, Nathan, we were having this private conversation and he did this thing. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe it. But if it was something we said on this show that we are presenting to the public. Yeah. Then, you know. Yeah. Hey, you know, Nathan said this in the podcast. I don't agree with that. That was really offensive and against Jesus. Yeah. So it's apples and oranges, I think.
Kent: Yeah. And in addition, Peter's sin was extraordinarily serious. I mean, his sin could destroy the church because it was denying the bedrock truth of the Christian faith.
Vicki: Bedrock truth of the Christian faith. This is how you have a relationship with God. This is how you get saved.
Kent: So this passage does not suggest we should publicly attack our pastors or church leaders because of a minor disagreement in strategy or something? No, the context is serious doctrinal error that could cause significant or irreparable harm to the church of Jesus Christ. So I think, for example, somebody denied the Trinity, the deity of Christ or the inspiration of scriptures. Those are things that, yeah, I'm going to take on. You can't compromise that. Or sometimes it could be a deliberate, destructive distortion of a biblical doctrine. Do you remember what Hudson Taylor experienced when he was going to go to China to spread the gospel?
Vicki: No, but I have a nephew named Hudson after him. What happened? I'd like to hear it.
Kent: The leaders came to him and said, God doesn't need you to win the lost boy.
Vicki: That's what you need to hear when you're going to do something valiant and hard.
Kent: No, they believed in predestination, and I hold to predestination too. But they said, because God draws people, you don't have to do anything. He'll do it.
Vicki: But that's not how it works.
Kent: No. He also says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Stupid.
Vicki: Yeah.
Kent: Or some people might take Acts 2, where one evidence of the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the ability of believers to speak in unknown tongues. And they did. Right. But if you take that and say, if you don't speak in unknown tongues, you must not have the Holy Spirit inside of you. Nah, you can't. Now that's a distortion of a biblical truth, and that would need to be confronted as well. Now, if the building is on fire and the people's faith in Christ is at risk, have the courage to pull the fire alarm. Peter, the disciple who betrayed Christ on the way to the cross, was confronted by his Savior after the resurrection and restored to ministry. Peter, the apostle, who was straying from the doctrine of justification by faith, was confronted by his colleague, the Apostle Paul, and as we know, was restored to the truth and to his ministry. But what might have been the fate if Paul had not been willing to speak truth to power? Who knows the damage that might have resulted? If God called Paul to help the Church in this way, God can call us. The question is, are we ready for that? In order to develop the credibility, we need to speak truth to power in these critical moments, we need to have credibility to do so. For anyone to listen to us, they've got to know, as we saw in chapter one, that we speak only what the Bible says. Our authority is the word of God, not ourselves. We have to, as we saw in the first part of Chapter two demonstrate submissiveness to be known as people who are part of the church and supportive of the church leadership in every possible way. Thirdly, people have to know that we have the credibility to speak truth because we've done it in the past. We're not afraid, when appropriate, to speak truth to power. The church was in crisis during the first century, and Paul rose to address that challenge. When your church is in crisis, the church needs you to speak truth to power. You need to have the courage to confront.
Brian: When we meet fellow believers who are being misled by false teaching, what should we do? We need to be prepared to confront influential pastors and teachers whose teaching does not line up with the gospel, as the Apostle Paul demonstrated. And Kent just said, we need to have the courage to confront. I trust that today's discussion of God's Word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the Word, but doers together. Let's bring God's Word to life, to our lives. This week, the crosstalk Podcast is a production of crosstalk Global, equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. we just completed successful training events in Asia and Mombasa, Kenya, help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click Donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also help support this show by rating it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're enjoying it. Be sure to listen next Friday as we continue our discussion of the Epistle of Galatians. You won't want to miss it.
Kent: Here.
Nathan: Hold on. Ken, before you continue on, is there something like. Is either like your microphone wire or something like knocking against your microphone a little bit or maybe your. It's at a pretty low level, so I can do like a hard filter pass and. And probably take it out, but if I don't have to do that, that'd be great.
Kent: Yeah, it's. Anytime I touch it, it rattles.
Nathan: Is the arm of your pop filter touching the microphone in any way?
Kent: No, no. It is the stance. I don't know what.
Vicki: Oh, that's better.
Nathan: It's the pop filter touching the microphone, just like I asked.
Kent: No, it's not. It's touching this back plate. There's a knob that was touching the back plate, not the microphone. How dare you. How dare you question my technical expertise. Ah. What? But people who belong to the circumcision group were the same group of people that we read about in Acts 15:5. Oh, my gosh. I can't say anything.
Vicki: Time's a charm.
Nathan: We love you, Kent.