Acts 10 -- God Does Not Show Favoritism

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. Here in Acts we learn how the church took this dramatic and revolutionary change. If you read this chapter and the ones that follow it is clearly not something that anyone saw coming. Many were outraged at Peter. The church has had few events this revolutionary. Martin Luther nailing his demands to the door of the church, not nearly as revolutionary as this. You can compare Peter and James discussing this to what Martin Luther did, but that is only a small part of the story. No, the only thing that I think comes close is Gandhi in South Africa. He said that the sermon on the mount had gone straight to his heart. Gandhi used Jesus' example. He did not tolerate injustice, greed, hypocrisy, or untruth. He confronted systemic injustice head on. He gave his life for God's reign of justice and peace, but he always did so through meticulous nonviolence. To me, the gospel going to someone who was a hindu is the closest thing we have to what we are reading here. Notice that this man Cornelius is devout and God-fearing. He wasn’t Jewish, he wasn’t Christian, he was God-fearing. He was generous and he prayed to God regularly. There have been a lot of misconceptions about what the Bible teaches and what Christians teach on this. This chapter is very clear, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Peter says this. Surely every nation includes South Africa and India. Surely Gandhi was one that feared Him and did what is right.