Acts 10:9-33 | When God Has a New WayНамуна

Three times God had to give Peter a vision that he was making the unclean, clean. “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” And each time Peter replies with some kind of objection: “I would never…” “Surely not, Lord!”

All of us have standards like that. Certain things we would never dream of doing. Sometimes that’s a good thing. There are certain things we should never do. But it gets problematic when those things we would never do are things we would never do, not what God would never have us do. It can be easy to confuse the two, especially when what we’ve been taught and the biblical narrative as we read it seems to line up.

This is why the early Christian movement was so shocking. Because it seemed -seemed- as though God was doing something in violation of what God had done. It wasn’t the first time. Israel never expected a cross for their messiah, salvation by his suffering, a resurrection breaking in ahead of the last day, or the Holy Spirit being poured out. Yet these were undeniable. They witnessed it and now had to reconcile what they knew about God with this new thing he was doing. So did Peter, with this double-blind vision with him and Cornelius. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

None of this is to say we should be quick to dismiss that which we’ve been taught. Too often truth gets sacrificed on an altar of success or expediency that way. It can be equally easy to follow the nations – that is, follow a fad. But if we are so rigid in our tradition and personal understanding of God, combined with a deeper understanding of God’s way, we may just miss what his Spirit is up to.

What are your “Surely, not I, Lords” and how do you make sure they align with what God is doing?