“So Peter opened his mouth and said, ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.”
- Acts 10:34-35
Before Luke gets deeper into Saul/Paul’s story, Luke goes back to Peter and some of the changing dynamics of the early church. Some of these shifts drastically impact one’s view and understanding of God and becomes one of the big things separating the church from Judaism. What’s crazy, is that many Christians, with not an ounce of Jewish blood in them, struggle to understand these concepts of who God’s chosen people are.
The struggle comes because we often want to decide that for ourselves. It’s even ingrained in our language sometimes. “They are a really devout Christian,” or “I wouldn’t consider them strong in faith.” And I’m guilty of this too, which simply reveals the difficulty of living out these verses.
Peter’s Change of Heart:
We can often talk about Peter shamefully. He rejected Christ three times, now he’s closed off to Gentiles in the church, Paul tells us elsewhere where Peter shows favoritism to fellow Jews. Yet Jesus calls Peter the rock of the church!
I like to think Peter is the rock of the church because he exemplifies how we too make these mess-ups all the time!
God had to do a lot of work on Peter in this chapter. Three times the same vision came to Peter. Picture this…
A great feast descends from Heaven. It's full of all the most delicious foods and your starving. Now Peter has never tasted any of this but has merely heard about it through others because those animals, reptiles, and birds are “unclean” for a Jew. It would go against the Law a Jew had to live by and yet a voice you can only assume to be God’s says to kill and eat, partake in the feast! This is one of those moral dilemma questions made real!
Peter is left perplexed by this and then receives an invitation to go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, and the Holy Spirit urges him to go as well. Peter, being a Jew, would not be allowed, according to the law, to associate with a Gentile in such a personal fashion, let alone all of the Centurion's family and friends as well!
But Peter goes along with the leadings of the Holy Spirit and is greeted by Cornelius who asks to hear the message Peter preaches all about! And Peter opens with the above verses. Now an interesting detail is Peter is not the only Jew present, for a group of them went along, not knowing what to expect from this visit, but perhaps they came to the same conclusion of Peter, that God shows no partiality, but instead accepts all who fear Him and does what is right.
Partiality, Fear, and Rightness:
These words can be quite triggering for people operating from all different world views. Partiality can appear a lot like permitting and accepting every lifestyle. Fear is being opposed by all, but some are afraid of different things and think other people’s fears are ridiculous. Being “right” is what everyone wants and yet it turns into showing partiality and judgment that we have no authority to do. So what are we to do with all this since it informs our view of God and the treatment of other people.
For God to show no partiality means that the barriers of Jew and Gentile no longer exist! This is a lot like the verse:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
- Galatians 3:28
Though the world can decide how it wants to divide people, all who are saved are the same. We are to love one another equally and impartially with no limit or motive besides to uphold the Kingdom Community. Can we celebrate and recognize each other’s distinct cultures and persons? Yes! It just means we have no reason to fight for or against anyone’s cultural base, instead, we see Christ in one another and see Christ as work in their culture.
We can be impartial because we fear and revere God. For we are one in Christ, all who believe and proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior! Fear is reverence and respect. I respect the spider's space in the corner of my living room, and sometimes I don’t so I take a vacuum to it! Cornelius lived in such a generous and prayerful way it was clear he revered God.
Rightness is where things get the most complicated. I do believe there is always a Right way to do something, a right to believe, think, feel, speak, act, and so on. But I don’t think it's as easy as right and wrong. It's more like evil, wrong, not right, intermediate, not wrong, good, better, best, right kind of scale. That’s just me though. But when we interact with others everyone lands differently on what they think is “right” and I do myself in some situations. But I believe God is the only one who can rightly judge what makes something right, and that He has grace for when something isn’t! Clearly what Cornelius did was Right. But God also expects us Christians to do what is right in accordance with His ways, and not just what seems to be right to us or what we were told is right. We must seek higher and better ways than what simply seems clear to us.
Final Blessing:
Let us cast off our judgmental and categorical ways of looking at others and instead take on grace, compassion, and God’s rightness so that we too can live without partiality!
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breath, and every heartbeat of your journey!
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