In high school, my primary activity was being on the speech team. One of my events was Impromptu Speech (because that is what all the cool kids did). In this event, you would be given a topic and have 30 seconds to prepare a 3-5 minute speech. The key to doing this was to immediately think of an intro, three points to the argument, and a conclusion.
At the state championships, I was given my topic and finished my preparation, then gave my intro (Boom), points 1-3 (nailed them all), and wowed with my conclusion. Then, for some inexplicable reason, I opened my mouth, and rather than standing there, mouth agape, I figured I should keep talking. This was a huge mistake. One of the key points of competitive speech (as if I had to tell you) is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.
What Peter and Cornelius Teach Us About Sharing the Gospel
The same goes for when we tell people about Jesus. In Acts 10, we see Peter going to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, “a devout man who feared God…, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.” Cornelius was ready to become a follower; all he needed was to be better informed as to who he was actually following. Peter comes to Cornelius and gives an incredibly basic narrative of who Jesus was. He quickly covers the following points: Jesus is Lord of all; he did miraculous things in his life; he was put to death, but God raised him on the third day; and everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. That’s it. That’s all God wanted of him, but then Peter did what comes naturally in far too many cases. He opened his mouth to continue. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit came as close as it is spiritually possible to telling Peter to shut up. “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word” (10:44). In other words, the Spirit is saying, “You can stop now; I’ve got this.” Which begs the question: What was Peter going to say?
Though what I am going to say is speculation, I do believe that it is possible that Peter was going to tell the Gentiles exactly how wrong they were and how much they needed to change. I say this for two reasons.
First of all, my own salvation story has similar elements. When I was in middle school, there was a Christian concert at one of the schools. I was a church kid, so I went. Having grown up as a Presbyterian, I had been baptized as an infant, but listening to these songs and this testimony led me to believe I needed to do more. When they had an altar call (the first one I had ever seen), I went forward. A volunteer, a wonderful older lady, took me by the hand to talk in private, where she explained the gospel to me, much as Peter did to Cornelius. But once I had prayed to give my life to Jesus, she continued to tell me all the things I would now be responsible for doing and the aspects of life I needed to change, many of which I had not even thought of yet. Needless to say, I went home that night scared and overwhelmed.
This is why I mark my actual conversion as later that night, when I was alone and prayed, not knowing if I could do all the things God would ask of me, but if he still wanted me, I was his. And from that date many years ago, this is how I still understand my relationship with God; it is not a checklist of what I have failed to do but a flowchart of where I have pleased him and where I have failed.
Related Post: Why You Should Read The Gospels… Again!
When the Holy Spirit Challenges Our Assumptions
However, there is an additional reason why I feel comfortable speculating on what Peter was prepared to tell Cornelius. You see, Peter hated him. I do not use that word lightly, but for all of Peter’s (and most ancient Jews’) lives, he had been taught that Romans, their oppressors, were pagans and unclean Gentiles whom they were forbidden to eat with or spend time with, let alone preach to. And when the Spirit tried to show Peter that a relationship with Jesus changed things by allowing him to eat foods that had previously been thought unclean, Peter’s reaction was, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean” (Acts 10:14).
Let me review that for a second. While all followers in our current time want nothing more than a clear, precise word from God about what we should do, Peter’s first thought was to correct the Creator of the Universe about dinner plans. So then, when he did finally follow God’s directions, he was still so convinced that he would get in trouble for even visiting the Gentiles that he took six witnesses as cover.
The Danger of Adding “And Then” to the Gospel
From this point, I feel that I can guess what Peter was prepared to lay down because I have heard it all of my life. “Yes, you can be a follower of Christ if you accept him, and then …” It is the “and then” that gets us into trouble. We are led to think that there are people whose sins are so grievous, whose behaviors are so out of whack that God could not possibly use them. (While all of the time assuming that ours are just minor trivialities.)
If this is where Peter was going, and a later desire that all male Gentile believers would still need to be circumcised (Acts 21) goes along with this, that these new believers would need to change aspects of their lives, such as diet, that Peter found offensive that might just mean nothing to God, it was beneficial for the Holy Spirit to have stepped in when he did.
Yes, it is true that once we begin our relationship with Christ as followers, we will need to change aspects of the lives we had led. After all, Paul refers to these new believers as “infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food” (1 Cor. 3:1-2). (It suddenly strikes me how often the New Testament connects understanding of the Spirit with food, but I digress.) However, the growth from infant to wherever God intends us to be is entirely in his control.
Can We Trust the Holy Spirit to Change People?
It is possible that God will prompt these new believers to change their ways, but it is also possible that God will allow them to continue living lives we find offensive, which don’t bother Him at all. “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions… Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another” (Rom. 14:1, 4).
I am sure that you have been introduced to many of the verses regarding judging others, logs and planks and whatnot, but a clearer explanation as to why we are not to judge, let alone condemn, others is in Romans 2. “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (2:1-2). While the sins that we attempt to keep secret are no less saddening to God than the ones we think we see in others, many of the standards we use to measure a person’s value to God fit into this category of opinions.
I have often heard it said that one of the most surprising aspects once we get to Heaven is seeing all of the people we were convinced wouldn’t be there. Hopefully, when we see the saved whom we thought unworthy of God’s attention, we will be able to greet them with joy and affection rather than needing to apologize for being a jerk.
