Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10.
When Saul became a follower of Jesus he almost immediately began preaching in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus the Messiah. To go along with my theme from yesterday’s entry, he did not spend much time learning what Jesus had taught, nor did he have the writings of the New Testament to learn from. Which suggests that Saul also taught Jesus based on his study of the Old Testament. Before long, the Jews in Damascus began plotting to kill Saul because they were unable to refute his arguments for following Jesus. Saul fled Damascus and went to Jerusalem, where he once again preached that Jesus was the Messiah. And once again, when certain Jews could not refute his arguments sought to kill him. And, again in Jerusalem, Saul spent only a little bit of time with the Apostles before beginning to preach. Yet, in all of this, the Apostles, who had spent three years listening to Jesus teach, never called Saul out for what he taught about Jesus and about following Jesus. Which reinforces what I wrote yesterday about being able to learn and teach the Gospel from the Old Testament.
When I first read over this I wanted to make Peter’s interpretation of his vision the center of what I wrote today, but I thought I should touch on the connection between Saul’s early preaching and what I wrote yesterday. So, now I want to write about Peter’s interpretation of his vision. My take on it is not something unique or different, but I think it is important for us to remember it today. When Peter got to Cornelius’ house and began talking with the people there he said, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” Let’s look at these two parts together. Saul got into heated arguments with his fellow Jews in both Damascus and Jerusalem. Yet, he never sought to distance from them. It was only when they sought his death, when they violently opposed him, that he left them behind, something which we see in his ministry as described in the rest of the Book of Acts. Even though Jews sought his death for what he taught, Paul kept reaching out to them. And here, Peter goes and reaches out to the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house, despite a lifelong training telling him that associating with them would make him ineligible to approach God. Let us follow the example of Peter and Saul who reached out to others who we might consider “impure”, and who, in Saul’s case, considered him reprehensible.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
