Fear Leads to Bondage
Dearly beloved of God, fear has ruined more individual Christian lives than anything else. Fear ruins those with ministries in the Church, also, when they succumb to its influence.
Fear does not come from God. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:7
Take note where this verse is found. To whom was this revelation directed? To Timothy, a minister of God.
Fear encases, it enslaves, it binds people, and holds them in bondage.
After the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, fear kept the disciples and apostles locked behind closed doors for fear of the Jews.
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [sonship], whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8: 15
Fear does not set men and women free; it opens them up to bondage and enslaves. It stops us from walking in the deliverance of the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ our Lord.Let’s consider what fear did to Peter, Barnabas, and others with them.
In Galatians 2; 11,12 we read that Peter succumbed to fear “when certain came from James.”
We must remember that Peter shared the gospel to Cornelius’s household in Acts 10, and it was the first time that the Gentiles were born again, and they manifested the proof that they were born again when they spoke in tongues.
God gave Peter the revelation that God was no respecter of persons. Then at the Church Council at Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15, he said:
“…God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, Which knows the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost [pneuma hagion: holy spirit], even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”
After this Paul and Barnabas declared, “what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.”
Paul went by revelation to Jerusalem and “communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.” Galatians 2:2
Both Peter and Paul knew the truth of the gospel of the grace of God concerning the Gentiles.
After the Church Council recorded in Acts 15, the apostles and elders sent Paul and Barnabas, and Judas, and Silas to Antioch with letters to communicate that they did not need to be circumcised, but only to abstain from meats offered to idols.
Peter, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas “tarried there [at Antioch] for a space.” After this Judas returned to the apostles, but Silas stayed there a while. Galatians 2:11 reveals that Peter went to Antioch during this time.
Peter, while in Antioch, ate with the Gentiles until certain ones came from James, then Peter withdrew from the Gentiles, “fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation [hypocrisy].”
What caused Peter and Barnabas “to not walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel?” The fear of what those from James might think caused them to walk wrongly. They knew what was right, but you could not tell it by their walks.
Paul did not let the hypocrisy in Peter’s walk slide; he confronted Peter to the face. Peter was a notable leader and his actions would certainly influence others. Even Barnabas, a long time cohort of Paul was taken in by the hypocrisy in Peter’s walk, and he dissembled with him.
Dearly beloved, fear was the enemy that got to Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jews with them.
Peter and the others were more concerned with those who came from James, than standing on the truth concerning the Gentiles and the Mystery of God.
Fear caused their wrong believing in practice, and it influenced how others walked. As you read the rest of the book of Galatians you see just how far reaching it was.
Dearly beloved, we not only need to know the doctrine of the Word of God, we need to practically apply it. We need to walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. We must not let fear do to us what it did to them.