11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the 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. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.14 When I saw 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, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 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 Christ Jesus 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.17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. Gal. 2:11-19
My work partner for over 25 years, when he first came to town had a license plate that said GAL 5 1, which when I asked him, he said that he had just come out of the Adventist Church and felt free from all the rules and the verse also warns not do drift back. Over time he did drift back and posts pictures of him and his grandchildren weekly at Church on the Sabbath. I don't believe at all that he has apostatized because he is not trusting obeying the Sabbath or the writings and rules of Mary Ellen White to save him but rather faith in Jesus. He has just found a comfort level in going back to his roots. But, there are a great number of Adventists who do believe that worshipping on Saturday is necessary for salvation and if you worship on Sunday, you have taken the "mark of the beast."
This is kind of the situation that Paul is describing here. Peter, who actually was given a vision that it was OK to eat unclean food and dine with Gentiles, is exercising that freedom from the law because he now realizes that the law was meant to show we are hopeless sinners and point us to Christ who fulfilled the Law on our behalf. However, when Jews arrive who are still stumbling over salvation by faith alone, Peter starts leaving his freedom and going back to his comfort zone rather than use it as an opportunity to disciple them in the truth of the Gospel.
At this point it's necessary to distinguish this issue from a Romans 14 or 1 Corinthians 8 issue. This doesn't just deal with matters of conscience; this issue is at the core of the gospel. Remember that all the religions of the world except Christianity teach that you get to Heaven by your works and that is not good news. So, when Peter was once again reverting back to dietary laws, cleanliness laws, and circumcision, even though in his heart he knew salvation by faith was right and hadn't himself apostatized, he was by his actions encouraging others to obey the Law for salvation and to not accept the Gentiles because they weren't obeying the Law.
My wife and I recently read a note penned by one of the grandchildren that he wrote in school. He told about his grandparents who always taught him about Jesus and even made-up stories that taught him right from wrong. Yesterday, in front of the class, he shared his Christmas traditions, which were at our house, of reading the Bible account from Luke 2 and hiding Jesus out of the Nativity scene and whoever found Him gets to open the first present. Our response to this was - "we can't get lazy." It's easy to get lazy and just hang out and I'm sure to a certain degree, Peter was just getting lazy. Let's just have a traditional Kosher meal like the old times and not confront them with the truth. Unfortunately, if Peter got lazy, who would save them from the error of their ways? And not only that but Barnabas was falling back into obeying the Law because he followed Peter's example.
Sometimes it's nice to just hang out with unbelievers and just have fun and leave them be. Unfortunately, eternal life of their souls is at stake, and this world isn't a playground but a battlefield and we aren't guaranteed another day, and neither are they. Let's not get lazy but continue to point people to the good news.
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