Acts 10:34-43… “Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” vss. 34-35
It’s a new Peter that speaks to Cornelius and his family in Caesarea–he’s been converted to a brand-new way of understanding the salvation of God. He’d grown up as a devout Jew and had an extremely narrow sense of who was included within the boundaries of God’s Peaceable Kingdom. But following his vision in Joppa he had concluded that God shows no partiality, that God does not love one nation more than another. What God cares about is goodness, the goodness that is planted in the heart of every human being, and when that goodness shines through the ubiquitous brokenness of humanity, God rejoices. For some reason Christians have had a hard time believing this and putting it into practice. We’ve invented denominations of every description and burnished their boundaries with rituals and traditions, all in an attempt to make clear who is in and who is out. And we all do it! Conservatives judge liberals and liberals’ mock conservatives, and then we act surprised when we see goodness in those we judge and mock. Perhaps we need conversion as much as Peter. Good news rests within the hearts of all people and all are capable of being light in the midst of darkness.
Thought for the Day: When has someone’s goodness surprised me?
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