peace . love . joy

These weeks find us digging into the book of Acts once again with our group of 16 year olds we're teaching in church. And yesterday, my sub-group of 16 year olds were looking at the conversion of cornelius starting from 9:32 all the way through 11:18.

Many of you who've been through the passage would probably come to the conclusion that God does not show favouritism at least in terms of who receives the gift of Salvation through Jesus the Christ, much less who gets to hear the Good News. That, at the very least, is evident in this passage through the account of Peter's experience from living with Simon the tanner, the vision from God, inviting the three Gentile guests in, going to the Roman centurion, Cornelius' home to preach and baptise, and finally explaining himself to the rest of the Jewish Christians.

But one verse in particular raises something rather interesting.

"If then God gave unto them the like gift as he did also unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that, I could withstand God?" (11:17)

When people decide to evangelise, especially street evangelism, what do they normally say?
Most, if not all, would ask non-believers, after they have heard the Gospel, if they will repent of their sins and profess and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Two things: repent and receive.

But what did Peter say to the Christians?
He mentioned only the word "believe". Luke records the Greek verb "πιστευσασιν".
That means to have faith; and by implication, to entrust.

If then they, the new Gentile Christians have received the gift of the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish Christians had on the day of Pentacost on the single condition of belief, does that mean repentence is unnecessary? Does that mean choosing to leave a life of indulgence in sin behind is redundant?

The answer naturally would be a firm "no".

But then, why?
If we could receive the gifts of salvation and the Holy Spirit on the singular basis of belief, why is repentence brought into the picture?

To answer that question, one must first answer this:
What is the basis of your faith?
What is that one thing, element or entity, that if absent, your faith will come crumbling down?

My group of 16 year olds responded with many answers:
(these are a few that I remembered)
The power of salvation
God's love
Other people (in terms of encouragement to keep at the faith, etc.)
The Truth of the Gospel, the Bible
Jesus' death on the Cross
Forgiveness
Prayer

One thread runs through most of the answers they gave. Can you see it?

Love.

Love runs through it all. Whether it was the inspiration, the spurring & initiating mechanism, the encouragement & perseverance & maintenance..
Love is the common theme.

God's love. For us.
We first believed because He first loved us.
We continue to believe because we love Him.

How do you show that you love someone?
You do things for that special someone, even if some of them things require you to go out of your way. You want to please that special someone. You care for that special someone. You don't want to hurt or anger that special someone. You find out that special someone's likes & dislikes and do the things that person likes, and avoid the things that person dislikes.

So how do you show God you love Him?
One obvious and important way is through repentance, μετανοιαν.
The trigger is guilt and the result, reformation. And by implication, a reversal; repentance.

But we need to know what to repent from and what to repent to.
And that requires a close, communicating relationship with God, knowing His likes & dislikes.

In this passage of Acts 9:32 - 11:18, it speaks of the change in attitude, the repentance of the new Jewish Christians regarding the new Gentile Christians. The Jews and the Gentiles go way back into history as mutually exclusive groups. They will have nothing to do with one another because the Jews are "clean" and the Gentiles "unclean". Now, the new Christians are learning to pull away from age old traditions and labels, embracing Jesus' teaching of loving one another just as He loves them.

So the main point of Acts 9:32 - 11:18 is not the conversion of Cornelius nor is it that God does not show favouritism.
It is μετανοιαν. It is repentance.

I like what one of the 16 year olds said during class. He said belief is the first step and repentance is what that follows. The cracks between the first slab of the stone "belief" and the next of "repentance" is the cement "love.



What about you?

Even while we fail to love our parents, our siblings, our families as best we can, is there a group of people, or a person, that you flat out refuse to love? That you refuse to share precious Jesus with them?

God loves man, us.
And (hopefully) we love God.
Because we love God, we love other people too.

Do you have something to repent from?