Cleanliness
Day 500, Wednesday, Dec. 24
Acts 10:1-23
The outward progression of the gospel message continues.
Yesterday we read of Peter’s willingness to stay at the home of Simon the tanner, recognizing a Jew on the fringes of acceptability. Today we read of Peter being invited to stay in the home of Cornelius, a non-Jew and Roman soldier.
When Cornelius is described in verse 2 as being God-fearing, that’s not just another way of saying he believed in God.
As the term is used in the New Testament, the God-fearers were gentiles who accepted and worshiped the God of the Jews, but did not convert to Judaism.
As belief in Jesus spread beyond the Jewish community, these God-fearers were some of the first to believe; they already knew and accepted much of the belief system that framed early Christianity, so taking the next step to accept Christ was not a large one.
Peter saw his vision as permission to go beyond the strict bounds of Judaism.
The vision was of a whole range of animals. God’s voice tells him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
Peter is hesitant, responding, “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” That response suggests that some of the animals he saw in the vision were animals that were not considered “clean” and acceptable for Jews to eat.
The voice from God tells him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
Within the vision this means that Peter is able to eat any of the animals he sees; God has made them clean. Peter seems to understand a broader meaning, though, that God has made people clean that he earlier would not have considered to be clean.
Believers coming out of the Jewish faith will continue to struggle with accepting people from outside that faith and with moving beyond rigid dietary laws—we’ll see both of these struggles repeatedly throughout the New Testament.
Wednesday meditation
Psalms 48:9-14
Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness. Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.
Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
Prayer focus
We confess that we have trouble seeing as “clean” everyone you have made pure, Lord. Give us the ability to see them through your eyes.
-Rev. Mark Fleming