“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 Barnabas 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?”

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
Galatians 2:11-21 ESV

Sometimes we have a hard time letting grace be grace. We feel the need to tack on extras, or add just one more element that we feel is ‘key’ because it hits on a personal hot-button issue, and so we feel extra passionate about it. It usually is something that isn’t directly mentioned in Scripture, but it feels to us like it might as well have been. And so, when people don’t fulfill our extra requirement, we begin to doubt their faithfulness, we question their faith. After all, how could they not see this and how important it is? How could they purposefully and willingly live and act opposite to or indifferently to something that is so important to us? They must not care about their faith as much as we do. And so we begin to view them less as a brother or sister in Christ and more as an opponent, someone to be contended with rather than loved, someone who needs to be ‘convinced’ rather than a co-laborer in Christ. And in doing this, we create a whole new category of people in our mind:
1. People who need Christ
2. People who are already in Christ
3. People who act like they know Jesus, but we think they must just be fooling themselves, because they don’t do it like I do.
4. Heretics

And so we keep our distance from them, and we talk about them to others who are like-minded whenever we get a chance. And we say it isn’t gossip, we’re just ‘concerned’ and want to make sure they understand how important this is. And further separation builds up in our hearts against them, and again, even though Jesus didn’t mention this directly, we feel sure He must have felt the same way we do, and so we we become a part of infighting and malicious talk and distance ourselves from the heart of Christ in the process.

This petty cycle of talk and attitude and nonsense is not what Christ had in mind for His bride, the Church. If there is something that comes up that is a legitimate issue that Scripture does directly address, or if there is a statute God lays out for us that is plainly spoken about, and we see someone living contrary to what is found in Scripture while still claiming Christ, then yes, we have a responsibility to calmly, rationally speak with them. You do judge a tree by it’s fruit, and as Christians we are called to seek reconciliation when we have been wronged, and to point out bad doctrine when we see it, just as Paul does with Peter in this passage. But it must be done directly and in love, based in concern. Not out of anger or bitterness.

Paul confronts Peter because he sees him living two different lives depending on who he is around, and he sees his doctrine shifting according to those crowds. And so, out of love and concern for Peter and more so for the truthful presentation of the Gospel, he addresses Him, personally, directly and in a group that can see what is happening and hold Peter accountable.

CAUTION: This is not a surprise intervention. This is not a witch hunt. This isn’t a ‘GOTCHA!!’ moment. This is not the Spanish Inquisition.

This is a brother in Christ sharpening another brother in Christ. This is love in action, and truth being protected. This is something you hope you never need to do, but if you do, you do it gently but directly and you do it in the company of believers who are strong, not out in public and not in front of people who are just beginning to come to Christ.

Matthew 18 has specific instructions for how to address someone who has wronged us personally or who needs correction. It is never done flippantly, lightly or without a great deal of prayer and personal inspection, checking for planks in our own eyes first.

Maintaining the purity of the message is vitally important. We do not compromise truth. But we also don’t treat others like they are not important and not worth our time along the way. If someone needs correction, then there is a proper way to handle that along the way. But we also need to ask ourselves if this is a matter of truth and doctrine or if this is a matter of opinion that we have developed, and look to the Scriptures to seek out the truth along the way. If we want to GoLove as we have first been loved, then we always consider the heart of the other person, and love them as Jesus would first before we go charging in full of righteous indignation and personal piety.