Peter's Vision of the Sheet on the Rooftopby KandD
11:8Acts 11:8
But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
At Joppa Peter fell into a trance and was shown unclean creatures with the command to slay and eat, but he refused, answering that nothing common or unclean had at any time entered his mouth. He could answer so because he had always kept the Jewish law against forbidden food and had never eaten anything he regarded as common or unclean. He was answered three times that what God has cleansed must not be called common. His refusal showed his hold on the ceremonial distinction of clean and unclean, and the answer taught him to no longer keep up the distinction of circumcision and uncircumcision nor look upon Gentiles as unclean, because God is no respecter of persons.
The verse belongs to a new phase in which God opened the gospel to the Gentiles, so that Gentile believers stand equal with Jewish believers. They are to be accepted as equal members of the church without circumcision, with God giving them the Holy Spirit just as to Jewish believers and granting them repentance leading to life. The vision that drew this reply prepared Peter to go to Cornelius and associate with Gentiles, challenging and breaking down the Jewish prejudice that stood in the way of the gospel reaching them.
Peter retold this refusal and answer to the brethren in Judea to defend entering a Gentile house and eating with uncircumcised men. He showed caution by taking six brethren as witnesses, to prove that old prejudice and exclusiveness must be destroyed by the gospel. His reluctance and correction show that God's servants must be willing to be taught by God and to yield their own and inherited ideas and have them corrected. If they will not yield, God may pass them by and use others willing to follow His way.
At Joppa Peter fell into a trance and was shown unclean creatures with the command to slay and eat, but he refused, answering that nothing common or unclean had at any time entered his mouth. He could answer so because he had always kept the Jewish law against forbidden food and had never eaten anything he regarded as common or unclean. He was answered three times that what God has cleansed must not be called common. His refusal showed his hold on the ceremonial distinction of clean and unclean, and the answer taught him to no longer keep up the distinction of circumcision and uncircumcision nor look upon Gentiles as unclean, because God is no respecter of persons.
The verse belongs to a new phase in which God opened the gospel to the Gentiles, so that Gentile believers stand equal with Jewish believers. They are to be accepted as equal members of the church without circumcision, with God giving them the Holy Spirit just as to Jewish believers and granting them repentance leading to life. The vision that drew this reply prepared Peter to go to Cornelius and associate with Gentiles, challenging and breaking down the Jewish prejudice that stood in the way of the gospel reaching them.
Peter retold this refusal and answer to the brethren in Judea to defend entering a Gentile house and eating with uncircumcised men. He showed caution by taking six brethren as witnesses, to prove that old prejudice and exclusiveness must be destroyed by the gospel. His reluctance and correction show that God's servants must be willing to be taught by God and to yield their own and inherited ideas and have them corrected. If they will not yield, God may pass them by and use others willing to follow His way.