Acts 11:1-3 (NIV)
The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Outreach to the gentiles was a new phase of God’s plan for the gospel. It was a next step that Peter himself wasn’t ready for until God showed him a vision and gave him a direct command. But there were many more for whom this new direction seemed like a huge problem.
In many of the Christian’s minds, Jesus had come as the Jewish Messiah to fulfill Jewish law and prophecies and to save Jewish people. They didn’t have any problem with the gentiles becoming Christians as long as they became Jews first. This philosophy ran deep in the hearts of many of those first disciples. Paul had a lot of trouble with them later on. He called them Judaizers and mutilators of the flesh, because they taught that only the circumcised could receive salvation through Jesus.
Now they heard the glad news that the gentiles had received the gospel, had believed in Jesus, and had been saved. But these older believers didn’t receive it as glad news at all! It didn’t conform to their theology, so they believed that it was a heresy that had to be confronted and rebuked. So, when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, they took him to task for associating with gentiles, entering their homes and eating their defiled food.
But those believers were listening to their own thoughts on the matter instead of seeking God and His opinion. Their theology, often contaminated with a touch of Pharisaism, was rigid, bound by their own interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures, and it did not include the parts of the prophets that clearly showed that God’s ultimate plan was to reach out and bring the gentiles into the fold of His people as well.
Father, it is true that You will never give a new revelation that contradicts the old. For example, You will never tell a prophet that they should proclaim that adultery is now okay. You are incredibly consistent throughout Your revelation. But all too often we can set our theology in stone and stop learning from Your word. As You point out, Your plan for the gentiles is woven all through the Old Testament, as the Church later realized. (Examples are Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1; Isaiah 11:10, 49:6; Hosea 1:10; Amos 9:11-12, and many others.) You knew even then that many of those nay-sayers would respond well when they heard Peter’s story, and that the gospel through Paul would reach multiplied thousands of the gentiles as he and his ministry partners obeyed Your call for the expansion of Your work. Help us all to keep our eyes open for new light from Your word, so that we never end up opposing Your plans, but always work with You. Amen.
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