This question took me on a road of research because it’s not as simple as it appears. I agree with all that Carson said, but I wanted to find out the background behind it.
Peter and the other apostles and believers had been spreading the gospel to only the Jews in Antioch. But, when Peter was in Joppa, he had his encounter with Cornelius, a Gentile, and discovered that the gospel had been made available to the Gentiles, as well.
When those from Jerusalem heard about this, they came to investigate. The leaders accepted Peter’s story about Gentiles being included. Scripture isn’t explicit as to the timing of all of this, but it does say that Peter then was joined by Barnabas and Saul (Paul) who were teaching (and eating with the Gentiles) in Antioch. Again, somewhere along the line, Judaizers came along insisting that the Gentiles be circumcised, thus binding them to the law when they had been freed from the law by Christ.
Peter must have backed down from his freedom to be free, fearing non-acceptance from born Jews. In so doing, he influenced Barnabas and others to do the same.
In my mind, Paul’s criticism was aimed at Christian Jews who were freed from the law, and free to associate with Gentiles, but who were acting like “sinful Gentiles” in requiring the Gentiles to be bound by the circumcision law. They should have been living as freed Christian Jews, not binding the Gentiles with the law which they, themselves had been free from.
You have to go back to Acts 11 and 15 to get a sense of what Paul was telling the Galatians. I hope this helps in some way.
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