Paul 2.3

But the unity came to a sudden end when certain men arrived at Antioch from Jerusalem. Apparently James was afraid that by opening the door for Gentiles to be part of our fellowship, the Jewish believers might be less careful about maintaining the purity regulations of Leviticus. He sent these men to urge Peter to set the tone for the other Jews in the church.

I first found out what was happening on a night when Cephas had planned to share the Lord's Supper with the church that met in Manaen's house. Much to my surprise, neither Peter nor Barnabas showed. In fact several other Jews did not come, leaving only Manaen, myself, and a handful of Gentile believers. When I finally found them, they were at a Jew named Simeon's house. They were eating the Lord's Supper, except it wasn't the Lord's Supper, for they had ripped the body of Christ asunder.

"Why did you all not come to Manaen's house," I confronted them, barely managing my anger.

"Brother Paul," Cephas said. "God has set me apart as the apostle to the Jews. Although the Gentiles can escape God's wrath through the faithfulness of Jesus, they are not the children of Abraham. We who are Jews by nature have to follow the law of Moses. To eat with Gentiles will make us unclean."

Barnabas, as usual, tried to smooth things over. "How do we know that the meat Jason brings from the marketplace does not come from one of the temples nearby? And you know that at home some of the Gentiles strangle their animals to death, leaving the blood in the meat. So when we eat with them later, we become unclean too."

"You are a hypocrite, Peter," I said before them all. "Are you a Pharisee now? I was a Pharisee. I never walked more than a 1000 cubits on the Sabbath. I tithed my spices. I didn't eat meat at all just to make sure I didn't eat something contaminated by blood or an idol. I kept the law, Cephas. You--you've never kept the law a day in your life. You, a Jew, have lived like a Gentile. And now you would compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

I stormed out of Simeon's house with a final comment: "You all are eating God's judgment on yourselves tonight, because you have not rightly discerned the body of the Christ."