About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ ‘Surely not, Lord!’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.’ The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
Acts 10:9-16 NIVUK
In my experience, the church has not always dealt with difference very well.
I have watched in horror as churches have split over different hymn books, different versions of the Bible, different styles of worship, even different tastes in decor.
Those are small issues. Now imagine how we react to bigger ones.
I’ve seen churches from the same denomination go their separate ways over cultural issues.
I've seen valuable ministries limited or even prevented from working because of differing approaches.
I’ve even seen church leaders react to different approaches by illegitimately claiming, like a cult leader, that they have the exclusive rights to the truth and others don’t.
When you see this, it’s no wonder some people look at the church and turn away from Christianity.
It’s time to put that right.
From Acts to Revelation, we see the church struggling with its biggest obstacle to its own growth and health. There were two cultures in those days that clashed head on, and often in hideously painful ways.
There was the pagan and licentious Greco-Roman culture, personified by the sexually-fluid pagans who even used prostitutes of both gender in worship; who ate until they made themselves sick, before eating some more; and who, while claiming to be cultured and wise, were also obscenely bloodthirsty, even making entertainment of the slaughter of innocents.
And then there were the morally-upright (at least on the surface) Jews, with their stiff laws, a belief in fairness and a God who offers grace to those who repent and follow Him, but punishment to those who do not.
In the middle of this noisy, violent culture clash, we have these verses.
This was the first time that any of the leaders of the Early Church would take deliberate steps to preach the Gospel to a Gentile.
Worse, the Gentile to whom Peter was about to preach the Gospel was a Roman Centurion – a commander of a division and a member of the occupying forces.
Worse, members of his regiment were volunteer Roman soldiers – men who had made a conscious choice to join the army and not been enslaved into it. This meant that they were considered the most loyal regiment to Caesar.
So there is ample reason for Peter not to go.
And from the chapters that follow, it doesn’t take much to understand the impact this had on his reputation (see Acts 11:1-3).
So you have here a hated Gentile, in a hated army, who chose to be in a hated regiment. And you have Peter.
You can see the extent God had to go to to speak to this man.
Yet there is a later verse in this passage that confounds all our expectations of Cornelius:
Peter went down and said to the men, ‘I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?’ The men replied, ‘We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.’
Acts 10:21-22 NIVUK
You see, Cornelius is a godly man who is widely respected. He took care of the poor and was a seeker after truth (Acts 10:1-2). He was told by an angel to seek Peter as a reward for his goodness (Acts 10:4).
Not a stereotype of a Roman soldier at all.
But Peter doesn’t know that.
And that’s part of the problem.
That is why God had to unveil a whole miraculous vision to get Peter to speak to him.
And it’s God’s refrain which reminds us of the truth conveyed in these verses:
The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
Acts 10:15 NIVUK
The point of this vision is that Peter has no right to reject those whom God had accepted.
This leads to Peter meeting with Cornelius, Cornelius’ household receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-48), the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-21) and the formal acceptance of Gentiles into the Body of Christ.
Without that decision, you and I would not be Christians.
So here comes the point of this meditation, and the reason why we have diverted to this passage in Acts.
Like Jewish and Gentile believers, there are often huge differences between God’s people. There is plenty to unite us, but also plenty that could divide us – if we let it.
But we should know better now.
Our fellowship has been a magnificent safety net for us as we walked the mental health tightrope that was the Coronavirus pandemic. There will always be another time when we will need that safety net. Of that we can be sure.
So it does not make any sense to cut that net just because someone else is a little different from us.
As Paul wrote to the Roman church, which had the same Jew-Gentile issue as many of the others early churches:
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Romans 15:7 NIVUK
And when discussing areas of contention about which the Bible is silent:
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.
Romans 14:1 NIVUK
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Romans 14:19
Let me tell you, learning to accept difference in others is not about being the ‘bigger person’. No, it’s about being the obedient person. The whole law is summed up in just two commands:
Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matthew 22:37-40
So if you fail to accept your brother or sister who might think or say or do things differently from you, then you are not keeping this law; therefore you are a law-breaker.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying we should accept those who brazenly sin and say that since God is Love then it doesn’t matter. Paul is very firm about them:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
1 Corinthians 5:9-11 NIVUK
What I m saying is that if people are doing their best to follow Christ but just happen to have a slightly different theology, or style of worship, or way of doing things, that are not expressly forbidden by Scripture then we must accept them.
Do you remember this incident?
‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.’ ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no-one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.
Mark 9:38-40 NIVUK
And as we saw earlier, no-one can name Jesus as their Lord without the Holy Spirit empowering them to do so.
‘Whoever is not against us is for us’.
How much stronger would our ministry be if we took this principle seriously?
Questions
Why do you think God had to go to so much effort to get Peter to preach the Gospel to Cornelius? Are there people that God would have to go to great effort to convince you to speak to?
What can we learn from Peter's acceptance of Cornelius that can help us when we meet with Christians who are different from us.
Do you believe that ‘whoever is not against us is for us’?
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