Breaking with Tradition
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10:34-35
Peter had seen Jesus breaking with tradition—healing on the Sabbath, eating with tax collectors and sinners. He’d seen non-Jews coming to faith—on Pentecost and recently in Samaria. But he still held to the Jewish tradition that he’d be defiled if he entered a Gentile’s home. However, God orchestrated two supernatural events to change Peter’s mind.
God sent an angel in a vision to a centurion living in Caesarea. Cornelius and all his family were Gentile God-fearers. The angel told him to “send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon Peter” (Acts 10:5). Cornelius told two servants and a devout soldier everything that had happened and sent them to find Peter (see vv. 2-8).
Meanwhile, in Joppa, Peter went to his housetop to pray. He fell into a trance and saw the sky open. A great sheet that contained various unclean animals, reptiles, and birds descended to the ground. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat” (10:13).
Appalled, Peter said, “No way! I’ve never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The voice said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean,” and repeated it three times before the sheet was taken back to heaven (vv. 15-16). Peter barely had time to think about the meaning of the vision before Cornelius’s men arrived at the gate of the house where he was staying. The Spirit told Peter, “Go with them, for for I have sent them” (v. 20).
The next day, Peter and some other believers from Joppa went with the men to Cornelius’s house. As Peter entered the house he’d formerly thought unclean, he saw the many relatives and close friends Cornelius had assembled. He realized what his vision meant and began to preach to these Gentiles. While he was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
Many of us have been taught to believe certain things which are traditional, but not biblical. Our churches show favoritism in various ways such as worship styles and lifestyle practices–even Bible translations and theological preferences.
Are there religious traditions that you should abandon? Ask God to reveal His will to you in these matters.
DIG DEEPER:
Read Leviticus 11:1-47. What unclean animals might have been on the sheet in Peter’s vision?
Read Acts 10:1-48. If Cornelius feared God and did good things, why did he still need to believe in Jesus and be baptized? Have you been baptized?
Compare Peter’s earlier sermons in Acts 2:14-36 and 3:12-26 with the one he gave at Cornelius’s house. What points did he exclude and what points did he add for his Gentile audience? How do you vary the message you give?
See also The Centurion about a Gentile whose son Jesus healed.
Nancy J. Baker
This devotion is part of a series on the Book of Acts.