That’s a fair question, but it misunderstands how Paul uses “living like a Gentile” (ethnikōs zēis) in Galatians 2:14.
The point in Galatians 2 isn’t about whether Paul, James, or Peter were permanently discarding their Jewish heritage, but whether they were treating non-Kosher table fellowship as permissible under the Gospel, and then hypocritically walking it back out of fear.
In terms of table fellowship and freedom, yes; in terms of identity, no. Freedom to share meals. Paul made it clear that in Christ, dietary laws no longer governed righteousness or fellowship (1 Corinthians 8:8, Romans 14:14). When Paul was with Gentiles, he ate with Gentiles without imposing Jewish ceremonial laws on them. He sums up his personal approach in 1 Corinthians 9:20–21:
“To the Jews I became as a Jew, to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.”
Paul was not bound by the ceremonial law, but he was free to observe Jewish customs when ministering to Jews, as long as those customs weren’t treated as a requirement for salvation or fellowship. What made Peter’s action wrong in Galatians 2 was not that Peter was a Jew, but that Peter changed his behavior out of fear of the “circumcision party,” effectively signaling to Gentile believers that they were second-class Christians unless they Judaized.
Was James “living like the Gentiles”? Most likely no, but James was not forcing Gentiles to live like Jews either. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem, a community composed almost entirely of Jewish believers. Naturally, James and the Jerusalem church continued to observe many Jewish traditions, Torah customs, and dietary habits as part of their cultural context.
The Jerusalem Council Agreement: However, James himself explicitly agreed that Gentiles did not need to come under the Mosaic Law or keep kosher laws to be saved or full members of God’s people Acts 15:19–20.
James living a Torah-observant personal life in Jerusalem was not hypocrisy. What Paul confronted in Galatians was people coming from James’ circle who were pressuring Gentiles in Antioch to adopt Jewish ceremonial practices, forcing a split at the communion table.
Mark 7:19: Jesus declared all foods clean: “Thus he declared all foods clean.” Acts 10:15: God explicitly told Peter, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” Romans 14:14: Paul writes, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.”
Galatians 2 shows what happens when that theology meets real-life practice. Peter knew the food and the Gentile fellowship were clean (hence why he ate with them initially). Paul’s rebuke wasn’t, “You must stop being Jewish,” but rather, “If you, being a Jew, live like a Gentile (by freely eating with them) when it suits you, how can you turn around and force Gentiles to live like Jews just to eat at the same table with you?”
Peter