Fear that makes God worth obeying

Ga 2:11-14 - 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?”

I don't think I would have like to be at the receiving end of rebuke by Paul, but I guess he deserved it. Peter, the great Peter, was fearing what people would think of him so that he would not eat with the gentiles for fear of what the Jews would say. Fear does that. It raises the value of someone or something over God. Simply put, he feared the Jews rebuke more than he feared God's rebuke. It is possible that Peter could have justified it as trying to reach more Jews for Christ or something like that, but in reality, his fear of man, at that moment, was greater than his fear of God.

Ps 33:8 - Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.

The whole purpose of Paul's ministry was to bring the gentiles into the kingdom of God. He was a Jew who had been sent to minister to the gentiles that God was welcoming them into eternity through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And here was Peter, fearing what the Jews would think, when instead, he should have been fearing the Lord that the whole world should be revering. This is a great wake up call to all who fear man over God. Turn your eyes heavenward and let the greatness of God make the weight of your friends or co-workers or family seem small.