Don't Look Down on Others

Galatians 2: 11 - 16 (NIV): When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 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 Peter 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? "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

What an amazing passage! Imagine if you were the "new kid" in a brand-new religion, and you confronted the religion's leader right to his face in front of the group. But that was what Paul did. Peter had stopped eating with Gentile Christians because some Jews had arrived and scolded him for it. Paul, who was also a Jew, called him out on it. There are no classes of people in Christianity. We are all equal in God's eyes - and we should be in our own. It is a temptation to look down on others for whatever reason, but true Christianity makes no allowance for that. I think it makes us feel better about ourselves to think of others as sinners or wrong.
Legalism was a problem in Paul's day and it still is today. Yes, the church should stand against sin, but legalistic churches are those that look down on outsiders as sinners who aren't as good as them. Legalistic churches emphasize do's and don'ts instead of grace. Legalistic churches emphasize rules and regulations instead of having a relationship with God. Jesus died so you could be a child of God, not so you could toe the line laid down by some chicken-breath preacher.
In Antioch, Peter was looking down on Gentiles because someone said they weren't as good as him. Paul put a stop to it. Jesus ate with sinners and didn't look down on anyone. If anyone had the right to look down on others, it was Jesus, but he didn't. Yet, legalistic people tend to see themselves as more righteous than others.
Paul points out that following the Law cannot save us and never could. Only faith in Christ can do that. It was true in the Old Testament and it is true today. Before Christ, people were saved by faith that the Messiah would come. We are saved by faith that he did come.
If someone demands that you follow his rules to be righteous, tell him that you are already right with God because Jesus made you that way.