From The Timelessness of Jesus Christ, by Richard C. Halverson (© 1982 by Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93006). Used by permission.

THERE ARE TWO great commandments upon which, we are told by Jesus, “hang all the law and the prophets�? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself�?(Matthew 22:37-40 ).

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law�?( Romans 13:9-10 ).

The beloved Apostle John declared in his first epistle, “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love�? If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us�?(1 John 4:7-8 , 1 John 4:12 ). And in his strongest words, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?�?(1 John 4:20 ). Godliness issues in mutual respect and love. No fact is more manifest in the Scriptures. Christian faith dissolves human prejudice. Faith that does not do so, whatever its profession, is not just subChristian; it is a contradiction.

Peter’s experience with Cornelius dramatizes this basic fruit of Christian faith, for it represents the surgery of the Spirit on the last vestige of racial prejudice in Peter’s heart. Peter said, “You know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation�?(Acts 10:28 ). Never had prejudice been more deeply imbedded in the human heart. History had never known stronger racial prejudice than Peter was talking about here. It is impossible for us today to imagine the contempt with which Jewry held the non-Jew in Peter’s day. Juvenal says that the Jews were taught by Moses “not to show the way except to one who practices our rites, and to guide the circumcised alone to the well which they seek.�?They would not even give directions to a non-Jew. Tacitus said of the Jew that “among themselves they are inflexibly faithful and ready with charitable aid, but hate all others as enemies. They keep separate from all strangers in eating, sleeping, and matrimonial connections.�?Edersheim, in his Jewish Social Life, says that “on coming from the market an orthodox Jew was expected to immerse himself to avoid defilement.�?He might not enter the house of a Gentile, for “he looked upon it to be ceremonially polluted.�?The Gentile was an abomination. His touch was defiled; his customs were abhorrent; his religion was a blasphemy.

One interesting fact about this is that there is no Old Testament regulation forbidding such social contact. These regulations were added by the rabbis and became binding by social custom. Here is an insight into the human tendency to reduce authentic faith to the traditions of men and to social custom, thereby in effect arriving at a Godless religion which has all the form but none of the substance. In the words of Jesus, “Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God you hold the tradition of men�? You have a fine way of rejecting the commandments of God that you may keep your own tradition’�?(Mark 7:6-9 ).

Peter was committed to this tradition. He said, “It is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or to come to one of another nation.�?Hence the possibility of an apartheid policy based upon human tradition elevated to the status of divine authority. It is not uncommon to hear segregation defended on what is assumed to be biblical grounds; and thus, to her terrible shame, the church has been called the most segregated institution in America!

But Peter had come a long way by this time. He had heard himself at Pentecost (I say that advisedly because he seems to have received his message direct from the Spirit), as he preached on that unforgettable day, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh �?and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved�?(Acts 2:17 , Acts 2:21 ).

Peter knew of the great spiritual awakening that had come to the despised Samaritans through the anointed preaching of Philip. He was, in fact, at the time of this experience, dwelling in the home of one whose vocation was held in contempt but who must have been a brother in Christ—Simon the tanner, in Joppa. The trade of a tanner was held in such supreme contempt that if a girl was betrothed to a tanner without knowing he followed that calling the betrothal was void. A tanner had to build his house fifty cubits outside the city. Nevertheless, even though Peter had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, had preached that Pentecostal sermon, knew of the revival in Samaria, and now dwelt with a tanner, an extraordinary act of God was required to break the back of prejudice in his life.

Peter was on the housetop praying at the ninth hour, mid-afternoon; he was hungry; he fell into a trance. It was as though “heaven was opened and a great sheet knit at the four corners was let down to earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And a voice from heaven said, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat”�?(Acts 10:11-13 ). Now God had given the Jews very strict rules concerning their eating habits. Obviously they could not eat the food served by non-Jews, but they had projected this beyond food to the non-Jews themselves, and considered them to be unclean.

Observe the tremendous and inflexible hold religious tradition can get on a man. Peter responded to the command, “Not so, Lord�?(verse 14 ). Religious tradition can even make a man say no to God! Religious tradition, without the love of God, can become the most intolerable influence in life. In Acts 11, verses 2 and 3 , it is recorded, “When Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.’�?/DIV>

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Illustration by Bonnie Timmons