“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” (Galatians 2:11-14 NIV)

The global phenomena of my generation - a.k.a. Taylor Swift - recently released a song with the following lyrics: 

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me…

I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror…

If I am being honest, I am not at all a Taylor Swift listener and therefore have no idea about the context of the song. However, these two lines of the song can speak a lot to the state of us as humans, particularly how we interact with each other. It speaks to the effects of hypocrisy, which is ultimately a tactic of people-pleasing (which most of us struggle with). 

This passage tells the story of Paul confronting Peter (a.k.a. Cephas). Peter is a Jewish man whom Paul says “live[s] like a Gentile, and not like a Jew” (vs. 14). Peter may not be blatantly disrespectful or rude to anyone. However, he is still causing a disturbance in his community. He has become hypocritical by acting one way when he’s surrounded by Gentiles (so as to please them), then pleasing the Jews by re-accepting Jewish customs whenever he’s around Jewish believers. 

In this situation, Peter was a people-pleaser, and a hypocrite as well. We must be able to realize that people-pleasing is a lie that leads to things like judgment and hypocrisy, which not only tears others down but also tears us down as we change who we truly are to “fit in.”

Is there some aspect of your life or someone that you need to address and humbly say, “It’s me, hi. I’m the problem”? When you acknowledge first that you may be the problem (not necessarily the people around you), you break down the wall of hypocrisy. And when you step away from hypocrisy, you also step away from making someone look bad in order to “fit in” with another group of people - a.k.a. people pleasing.