Acts 10:32, commentary and pictures

The angel told the devout, praying centurion to send to Joppa for Simon Peter, who would come and speak the words he and his house must hear and do to be saved. The direction named Peter's exact lodging in the house of Simon the tanner by the seaside, showing that God knows precisely where each person is to be found. Though the angel could have told the gospel himself, God joined heaven with earth by sending the inquiring Gentile to His appointed human messenger. Cornelius was God-fearing, prayerful and charitable and accepted of God, yet his piety and alms could not take the place of Christ, and he needed the fuller light and knowledge of Christ to complete his faith. That sending set in motion the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles, overcoming Jewish prejudice and making his household the firstfruits of a worldwide harvest in which Gentile believers share equally without circumcision.

Angel's Direction and Setting

The instruction was given by an angel to Cornelius to send to Joppa and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, with the promise that when Peter came he would speak words Cornelius ought to hear and do. Peter was thereby prepared to bring God's message to Cornelius and his assembled household. God did not give Cornelius all the needed instruction through the angel but directed him to one who had received knowledge from God and could share it, bringing a seeker of light into contact with those able to impart it. The direction identified Peter by name and lodging place and assured Cornelius that Peter would come and tell him what he needed to do.

The direction gave every particular of where Peter was lodged, in the house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside. God knew exactly where Peter was to be found and told Cornelius just where to look to find him. The specific directions with the exact lodging place show that the Lord knows every person by name, just where they live, the spirit they possess, and every act of life. He told Cornelius every particular about him, that he was with Simon a tanner.

The setting was Cornelius fasting four days until that hour and praying at the ninth hour in his house. Then a man in bright clothing stood before him declaring that his prayer was heard and his alms were remembered before God. It was anxious, hungry eagerness to be fed with gospel truth, with a small company waiting to be fed.

Cornelius obeyed immediately, sent men to Joppa for Peter, and waited with his kinsmen and near friends and household gathered together. They were all present before God to hear all things commanded of God through Peter. The instruction thus brought Peter to Cornelius's home, where Cornelius and a gathered company were waiting to hear the teaching God had sent Peter to give.

Divine guidance here came as a definite, detailed representation in the night season of what to do and what to speak. It was clear instruction directing His work, telling Cornelius to send to Joppa and call Simon Peter from the house of Simon the tanner by the seaside, with the promise that when Peter comes he will speak the words Cornelius is to hear. Such guidance is repeated again and again. It is of the same kind as direction given through visions about what should be spoken.

Heaven Joins Human Messengers

The angel could have delivered the gospel message directly, but that is not God's way, for Cornelius was not to receive the gospel from the angel but through Peter as the appointed human instrument who had received knowledge from God. God knew exactly where Peter was to be found, lodged with Simon a tanner by the seaside, and told Cornelius all about it and just where to look, giving every particular of where he was lodged. God directed Cornelius to send for Peter with the assurance that when Peter came he would tell him what he ought to do and speak words he needed to hear, and Cornelius obeyed and gathered his household and family to hear him. God's plan was for chosen people rather than an angel to bring the truth of the gospel to those who needed it, so the light He had given Peter would be given by Peter to Cornelius, and Peter's coming connected the Gentiles with the gospel. God's people must therefore come into close connection with Him and with one another, unify, love one another, and deal honestly, justly, truly, and righteously with one another, with members of the church connecting together as the truth imparted to one is imparted to others.

Heaven and earth are united in the work, with angels acting as guides and powerful helpers of God's chosen messengers on earth who cooperate with human agencies. God in heaven sends His messengers to earth to set in operation a train of circumstances that brings Peter into connection with Cornelius so Cornelius might learn the truth. Through angel ministration Peter is brought into cooperation with inquiring souls who have all things in readiness to hear the truth and receive advanced light. God guides His servants to make personal, sincere, earnest efforts for those who have not received the whole truth yet serve God with sincere purpose and walk in all the light they have received, and angels cooperate with them to bring such seekers into the full light of truth. God will guide His servants to these precious jewels in this dark world of sin, so they should place themselves in readiness for this work and take courage.

God works on human minds to bring a sincere seeker who fears Him together with His appointed human messenger, directing him to someone who has received knowledge from God and can share it. God brings people who seek light into contact with those able to impart it, bringing them together so they can communicate and teach one another. In every age God works through His servants to bring honest-hearted inquirers and the honest in heart into connection with those of His people who can best reach their individual needs. Some have special knowledge fitted to help one class of inquirers and others are trained differently to help another class, with different workers adapted by special knowledge and training to help different classes. By bringing Peter and Cornelius together, God opened the way for Gentiles to believe in Christ and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, marking a new phase in which Gentile believers were accepted as equal to Jewish disciples without circumcision.

Cornelius was a devout, God-fearing man whose prayers and alms came up for a memorial before God, who feared God and worked righteousness and lived up to the light he had and lived by principles of righteousness, and who was kindly regarded, accepted by God, and commended for piety, prayer, and almsgiving. Yet his piety, prayers, alms, faith, and righteousness could not take the place of Christ Jesus, in whom all fullness dwells, and his faith and righteousness could not be perfect without a knowledge of Christ. He who had believed the Word promising a Messiah must now receive the fulfillment of the promise and gain an advance in faith and new experience to work intelligently through Christ. Peter's visit brought Cornelius and his household further light and knowledge of Christ, with advanced light and knowledge of God obtained through connection with Peter as a man of superior knowledge regarding the Word, which they needed to develop their faith and righteousness and for the further development of righteous character. So God works for devout men in every age whose lives are a pure testimony for truth and righteousness, preparing the way for these true standard-bearers to take the place of those who were given a knowledge of Bible truth but disappointed Christ.

God directed Cornelius to the appointed messenger and promised further light through Peter's words, and Cornelius obeyed immediately by sending for him and gathering his household present before God to hear all things commanded of God through Peter. The teaching is open readiness to receive every ray of light, never feeling that all light is already received, but accepting and cherishing day by day the truth as it is in Jesus for sanctification and conformity to the divine likeness. Truth is onward and upward and must be accepted with joy when God brings connection with His servants bearing new truth, with faith uniting with works.

God dealt with Peter by vision when He was about to send him to preach to the Gentiles, giving specific direction to Cornelius to send for Peter whom God was preparing. This proves God gives visions for the comfort of His people and to correct those who err from Bible truth and need correction, and to guide His people. Visions comfort and correct, but do not provide a new rule of faith, while the Word of God remains the rule of faith and practice by which all are to be judged.

Peter's experience in the home of Cornelius corroborates the promised blessing of power from on high, in which believers speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance, matching the experience of the early apostles recorded in the Word.

Gospel Opens to Gentiles

The direction to send to Joppa for Peter prepared Peter himself to carry God's message to Cornelius and his assembled household and set in motion God's plan for Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. At that time the apostles still excluded Gentiles in mind from gospel privileges, so Peter's visit became the first major and first important conversion among the Gentiles and marked the opening of the gospel beyond the Jewish people. Peter's coming connected the Gentiles with the gospel by bringing the words by which Cornelius and his household could be saved. That coming opened the church's work to them into a new phase in which Gentile believers were to be accepted as equal to Jewish disciples, sharing equally with Jewish believers in the gospel's blessings as fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, without being required to be circumcised.

God used the encounter to overcome prejudice against Gentiles fixed in Peter's mind by Jewish training. Peter undertook the duty laid on him by divine command with reluctance at every step, and when relating his experience defended it not on general principles but as an exception done because of divine revelation, with the result a great surprise to him. He learned not to belittle those with no opportunity to hear truth, not to call any man common or unclean, and not to treat Gentiles as unclean or excluded from the gospel. The vision that prepared Peter to go taught him to set aside that prejudice, and it does not remove God's prohibition on unclean animals as food.

The conversion of Cornelius and his household was only the firstfruits of a harvest to be gathered from the world. From that home and household in a heathen city a widespread work of grace was carried on. Cornelius as a man of influence, stewardship, means, and responsibility shows that God seeks people in responsible and influential positions and wants them connected with the church. Such men need special care and more determined, earnest labor because of the responsibilities they bear and the temptations and worldly ties that hold them back, and when they receive greater light and become witnesses their conversion gives strength and solidity to the cause.

Cornelius was earnestly seeking, longing, and praying for light from heaven, and when Christ was revealed to him through Peter's message he received Him gladly with new advance in faith and experience. He represents sincere, honest seekers outside the Jewish people who long for truth and whom God intends workers to reach and guide to the truth. The account belongs to Peter's pioneering work in crossing long-standing barriers and teaching the heathen world.

Call to Faithful Work

The tenth chapter of Acts is to be read and prayed over until its meaning is opened, for it shows how God works on human minds to break the power of oppression and tyranny and to dispel ignorance and superstition. That opening lays a duty on those enlightened to begin earnest work for souls in their home field and to arouse to home missions, lest they be found wanting in the day of God. Since God is no respecter of persons, no barriers of nation or class are to be erected, and the gospel is to be given as freely to Jews as to Gentiles.

God guides His servants to make personal, determined efforts for those who have not received the whole truth yet serve God with sincere, earnest purpose and walk in all the light received, and angels cooperate with human agencies to bring such seekers into full light. He directs His representatives to particular people and places where service is needed even when it is not their own choice, and He will guide them to these precious jewels in a dark world of sin, so servants should stand in readiness and take courage. Gentiles can serve God as acceptably as Jews, and many like Cornelius are in the world, with souls in the churches nearer the kingdom than supposed.

God still works for devout men in every age whose lives are a pure testimony for truth and righteousness, preparing true standard-bearers to take the place of those given Bible truth who disappointed Christ. The pattern for men called now is that lifelong profession does not make a true man, but sanctification and ennobling through truth with kept spiritual discernment does, while those who lose discernment are in peril, wise in their own eyes yet foolish, building on sand to be swept away in tempest for want of foundation on solid rock. In the last days those who value God's wisdom above earthly advantage and obey His Word will, like Cornelius bringing his faithful life into connection with disciples, receive greater light, learn the truth, and share it with other seekers.

Earnest, devoted, determined efforts are to be made for associations where inquiring souls are in readiness to hear advanced light and receive it, for light will shine to honest souls there as honest as Cornelius so that seekers may be gathered out from those bitterly opposed. That gathering is only the firstfruits of a harvest to be gathered from the world, and from such a household a widespread work of grace can be carried on in a heathen city. Special, more determined labor is needed for men in stewardship, means, responsibility and influence whose sympathies are with God's people, for threads binding them to the world and lack of moral courage hold them back amid temptation, and their conversion gives strength and solidity to the cause rather than leaving work to drift to gathering only the poorest whose untransformed traits would dishonor Christ unless grace daily transforms the heart.

God knew exactly where Peter was to be found and gave every particular of his lodging, yet the angel did not preach the message directly, for the light given to Peter was to be given by Peter to Cornelius and his family. Because the church must connect together, believers must come into close connection with God and one another, unify, love one another, and deal honestly, gently, justly, truly and righteously with one another instead of covering own wrong by pointing at another's wrong and building up self in hatred. The ministration resulting in the conversion of Cornelius and his company shows heaven is much nearer the soul-saving Christian than supposed, teaches God's regard for every human being, and calls each to treat his fellow as the Lord's instrumentality for His work on earth. The Lord knows every person by name, dwelling, spirit and act, having known Cornelius because he received and improved all light given, and ministering angels still pass through the churches noting each person's faithfulness in his individual line of duty as they join seeking souls to appointed human messengers. The sending portrays anxious, hungry eagerness to be fed with gospel truth, with fasting, prayer at the ninth hour, and a small waiting company gathered all present before God to hear all things commanded.