Peter Explains His Actions

Many early Christians from a Jewish background had trouble with Peter’s willingness to eat with the gentile Cornelius because they believed that close contact with gentiles would render a Jewish person unclean (Acts 10:1–11:3). Peter’s actions were contrary to long-standing Jewish practice, though this practice was in many ways a misapplication of the Mosaic law. The Jewish resistance was understandable from a human perspective, but Peter wanted to make sure that the Jews understood that what he did was not contrary to the will of God. So he explained to the Jewish Christian objectors what had happened in his encounter with Cornelius, as we see in Acts 11:4–17.

Today’s passage is a short summary of Acts 10 that recounts Peter’s vision, the Holy Spirit’s command to go to Caesarea, and the Spirit’s descent on Cornelius and the other gentiles. Note verse 12 in particular, where the Apostle says that the Spirit told him to go with Cornelius’ servants to Caesarea, “making no distinction.” In other words, Peter wanted his Jewish Christian interlocutors to understand that violating traditional Jewish practice was not his idea but was a divine command. He was to go to the gentiles freely, not making a distinction between himself and them in such a way that would prevent the gospel from coming to Cornelius.

Anyone, of course, can claim that God has spoken to him. But Peter had proof for the Jewish Christians that the Spirit’s message was real. First, there was the testimony of Cornelius that an angel had appeared to him and told him to send for Peter (vv. 13–14). What Peter had heard from the Lord matched what Cornelius had heard from God. Second, Peter explained that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the gentiles, reminding them of Jesus’ promise to baptize His people with the Spirit (vv. 15–16). The same Spirit had fallen on the gentiles as had fallen on the Jewish Christians, and since Christ sovereignly pours out the Spirit, it must be that Jesus wants gentiles in His church alongside Jews. Peter simply could not refuse to admit them, and by no means could he withdraw from fellowshipping with them. To do so would be to refuse the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in sending His Spirit. To not admit them would be to stand in the way of what God was doing (v. 17; see Mark 1:8). May our churches not put up opposition to Christ’s work but rather be the Lord’s means of executing it.