Peter's Vision of the Sheet on the Rooftopby KandD
11:9Acts 11:9
But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
The voice from heaven answered a second time with the command not to call common what God has cleansed, and the message was repeated three times. The command means that the Gentiles whom God has cleansed must not be regarded as common, unclean, or excluded. In Peter's vision this meant he must not regard Gentiles as unclean or refuse to associate with them.
It ended the ceremonial distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision and showed that Gentiles could be welcomed into the Christian community. Gentile believers who accepted the gospel are to be regarded as fully equal to Jewish disciples and not excluded from God's people, without being circumcised or having ceremonial rites imposed on them. God is no respecter of persons, giving Gentile believers the Holy Spirit just as He did Jewish believers.
In Peter's mission to Cornelius, it required him not to refuse to associate with Gentiles or reject God's direction to go to them, but to yield his own ideas and prejudice to God's direction. It broke down Jewish prejudice and the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, opening the Christian church and the way for the gospel to be preached among the Gentiles and carried to all the world.
The voice from heaven answered a second time with the command not to call common what God has cleansed, and the message was repeated three times. The command means that the Gentiles whom God has cleansed must not be regarded as common, unclean, or excluded. In Peter's vision this meant he must not regard Gentiles as unclean or refuse to associate with them.
It ended the ceremonial distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision and showed that Gentiles could be welcomed into the Christian community. Gentile believers who accepted the gospel are to be regarded as fully equal to Jewish disciples and not excluded from God's people, without being circumcised or having ceremonial rites imposed on them. God is no respecter of persons, giving Gentile believers the Holy Spirit just as He did Jewish believers.
In Peter's mission to Cornelius, it required him not to refuse to associate with Gentiles or reject God's direction to go to them, but to yield his own ideas and prejudice to God's direction. It broke down Jewish prejudice and the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, opening the Christian church and the way for the gospel to be preached among the Gentiles and carried to all the world.