Job 20-21, Acts 10:24—48 • Key Verse: Acts 10:28
Often people are divided. At sporting events, fans root for opposing teams. When there is an
election, voters choose candidates from opposing political parties. Even at the airport, travelers
approaching the ticket counter find a line for first-class passengers arid a much longer line for
everyone else.
These divisions are acceptable in their own way, but other divisions are not. People are divided
by prejudices that may be racial, sexual, cultural or even geographical. One of the sharpest of
those in biblical times was the division between Jews and Gentiles,
God addressed this division very directly in a vision for Peter. When Peter was asked to go to the
home of Cornelius, a Gentile, God knew he would not go. God had: to break down Peter’s
prejudice. And he got the message—“God has shown me that I should not call any man impure
or unclean” (v. 28).
Later Paul would write that Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph.
2:14) and that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus,” (Gal. 3:28).
Think again about the Samaritan woman. When Jesus spoke to her, He ignored religious, racial
and sexual prejudices along with the disdain others showed her because of her immorality. He
ignored these to give her the message of salvation.
We, too, must remove the barriers that keep us from reaching others and fellowshipping with
those who are part of the Body of Christ.
Prejudice is a sin that can get deeply ingrained. Sometimes we do not notice that the words or
phrases we use, even the jokes we tell, can indicate its presence. Examine your heart and ask
God to help you remove all barriers between yourself and others in Christ.
Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett
www.backtothebible.in