by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Error can affect any of us. Peter was used to convert Cornelius and his household. Then he defended that action: “Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?<\/em>” (Acts 11:17). Here, Peter stands up against those perverting the gospel message and demanding that Gentiles had to not only believe in Jesus and be baptized but also <\/b>be circumcised and keep the demands of the law of Moses. (Read Peter’s defense in Acts 15:7-11 again.)<\/p>\n Yet<\/strong>, at some point, even he was influenced by these false teachers: “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy<\/em>” (Galatians 2:11-13).<\/p>\n Knowing the truth is the beginning, but then we must have stick-to-it-ness! Peter was said to have ‘feared the party of the circumcision’. He was an apostle! He had been told not to call unclean that which God has called clean (i.e., the Gentiles were to be accepted!). If he <\/b>could be led astray, if he <\/b>could be pressured into acting contrary to what he had known to be true, then we <\/b>can be misled!<\/p>\n Later, Paul would exhort Timothy: “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:14-17). Are you still continuing in the things you have learned?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Error can affect any of us. Peter was used to convert Cornelius and his household. Then he defended that action: “Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[256,559],"class_list":["post-95386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faithful","tag-peter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45041,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-acts-1117-teach-that-people-were-saved-only-by-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":0},"title":"Does Acts 11:17 teach that people were saved only by faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Those who believe in faith alone insist that because of Acts 11:17 they received the Holy Spirit by believing in Jesus they were saved. How must one defend against it? Answer: In Acts 11, Peter is defending his actions in Acts 10. \"But Peter explained it to them in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86240,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-peter-be-in-rome\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":1},"title":"How could Peter be in Rome?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read from many early Church fathers that Peter was in Rome and preached in Rome. Still, in Galatians 2:7-9 at the Jerusalem Council, the agreement is made that Peter would only go to the Jews, not the Gentiles, so Peter would be breaking that agreement if he went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-spirit-only-given-to-the-obedient\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":2},"title":"Is the Spirit only given to the obedient?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your study on Cornelius, you indicated that receiving the Holy Spirit did not necessarily indicate that a person believed or was saved. You cited the examples of Saul and Balaam as proof, but doesn't\u00a0Acts 5:32\u00a0contradicts this? Answer: The study being referred to is \"Cornelius Received the Holy Spirit.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93426,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-faith-cause-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":3},"title":"Does faith cause salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Mr. Hamilton, Thank you for sharing the article \"What Saves a Person.\" I've read it carefully and wanted to follow up with a sincere question. I noticed the article lists many things Scripture associates with salvation - God, Christ, grace, faith, repentance, baptism, obedience, etc. - and then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/incorrect-paradigms-on-grace-works-righteousness-and-believes-in-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":4},"title":"Incorrect Paradigms on Grace: “Works Righteousness” and “Believes in Him”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Perz \"Then Peter opened his mouth and said: \"In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ-He is Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/peters-conviction\/","url_meta":{"origin":95386,"position":5},"title":"Peter’s Conviction","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Peter, another eyewitness and apostle of Jesus, was recorded by Luke regarding several of his testimonial accounts. See Luke's impressive documentation of Peter's presentation of the evidence of Jesus, as Luke recorded them in summary in Acts 2, 3, and 10. Luke recorded these speeches to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}