The Essential Question (Part 5): The Good News Is for EveryoneSample

Holy Legalism

Prepare: Think about your early experience with the church. Did you find the church restrictive, affirming, or what else? How has that affected you today?

Read: Acts 11:1-18

Reflect: This passage feels like a summer rerun on TV. Change the channel, I already saw this one! But we shouldn't skip over Peter's retelling of his vision and subsequent meeting with Cornelius too quickly because it was a major turning point for the church and, as we can now appreciate, for the world.

As we learned in our consideration of Acts 10, the Jews had a longstanding dislike for Gentiles. The origin of this conflict had its roots in the good command of God; His chosen people were to be separate from the evil ways of the nations (Leviticus 20:26). But over the centuries, that holy motivation had been lost in a human system of laws and prejudice. If the good news was going to spread, God had to break through that system of hate. That's why He intervened in such a dramatic way.

The Jew-Gentile issue may not be such a tension today, but this passage is a warning to us of the dangers of "holy legalism" in the church--that is, following the letter of the law but not the spirit of it as well (see Matthew 9:13). When Christians seem more interested in their rules than in living out God's love and mercy, seekers and nonbelievers begin to see the church as a negative force. One of the biggest challenges the church has in an increasingly secularized world is learning how to effectively speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

It's also instructive to consider how the early church began to deal with this controversy. The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem made the mistake of criticizing Peter before they knew all the facts (11:2-3). Perhaps this was motivated by their commitment to obey God's Word, but even so, they would have done much better to start by asking questions. What's your first reaction to another Christian who expresses different views from yours?

The most amazing thing in this passage is the way Peter responded to his critics. Think about Peter for a minute; he was a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy (see John 18:10). But here Peter didn't respond with anger or even by taking personal offense. Instead, he calmly explained what happened and concluded, "Who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:17). Peter's growing maturity shows that calmly focusing attention on what God has done can be a much more effective witness than fighting.

Apply: What groups of Christians, and non-Christians, make you angry? Why? What is one practical way you could apply Peter's example to these situations?