Seek Heaven Instead of Hell

How do we find the Lord again, when He seems so missing in our lives?

When I visited a Sunday-school class recently, someone in the class reminded me to read verses, chapters, and even whole books that lead up to a scripture that you're tempted to look at the wrong way.

Often, people can tell when someone is looking at a scripture the wrong way, because that someone is looking at the scripture in a way that's contrary to the Holy Spirit: a way that claims the scripture says it's good or okay to do terrible, sickening, wicked things to one another.

One such verse appears all by itself as the lead verse in a Sunday-school booklet:

"But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean." (Acts 10:28)

That's a verse that's often misused, taken by itself.

It's not a verse that should ever stand alone.

Why not?

What Peter is saying is that he realized he didn't have any authority, in the Spirit, to speak in a way that said anyone was forever condemned to hell.

You have to understand what the Jewish mindset was at that time.

Israel had returned to strict faith during years in bondage to Babylon. And one of the beliefs the Hebrew people cleaved to was that people who ate unclean animals in order to live were themselves unclean, meaning absolutely destined to perish.

Uncleanness, at that time in Hebrew life, meant a soul was meant to live and die a perpetual hell.

So, when Heaven gave Peter a vision that said that perception was wrong, he basically said he had no right to say (to speak out loud, or to speak into being) that anyone was unclean (meaning going to hell).

That was not to say that it's okay to actually be unclean — when God has given you means to be clean.

And that was not to say that it's okay to suffer sickening assaults — when Jesus has been your healer.

Peter was not saying that being sick is okay because I'm not going to say you're sick. Oh, my goodness. That is not what he was saying.

And Peter was not saying that being unclean in behavior is okay, because, I'm not going to say, anymore, that you're doing things that are filthy and hurtful to my faith.

That's not what Peter was saying.

Peter was saying that God had prepared him to minister to everyone, to no longer assume that people were destined for condemnation because of the animals that they ate for sustenance.

He said he didn't have authority to call anyone condemned. That's what Acts 10:28 really means.

But, then, the word says he "opened his mouth and said" — instead of calling anyone condemned/unclean — "... God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34), meaning God chastises everyone, no matter whether a person is a king or a pauper, an unbeliever or a believer, a Gentile or a Jew. That's "of a truth," he said.

But then, in opening his mouth, Peter also said that he realized, through Heaven's vision to him, that people everywhere have the ability live righteously, no matter what types of foods sustain them. It's faith that matters, he said.

Peter said, "In every nation, he that fears [the God of Heaven] and works righteousness, is acceptable" in the way he lives in Jesus (Acts 10:35-43).

And, as Peter was speaking, opening his mouth in truth, the Gentiles who he was ministering to received the Holy Spirit! (Acts 10:44)

Peter said that, through Jesus, whosoever believes has remission of sins, deliverance from sins (10:43). And he said this through knowing the full gospel: through knowing that calling on Jesus means repenting of sins (Mark 1:4).

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A Word of Caution:

We live at a time when so many people want to bring about tolerance through intolerance.

But, when you have the love of Jesus in heart, you are considerate of the feelings of people who choose not to eat animal meat at all. You don't force them to eat something they believe, through conscience, is wrong.

That's what the Bible says.