“Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

— Acts 10:47

Have you heard the saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same”?

Though Jesus had come to change the spiritual lives of all who would believe in him as Savior, some things in the lives of Peter and others remained the same. But a divine appointment changed everything.

As a leader in the early church, Peter set an example for the Jewish followers of Jesus. He kept the Sabbath with prayer and rest. He kept kosher, carefully minding the strict Jewish dietary rules. What’s more, he shunned contact with Gentiles (non-Jews), and, like all Jews, he hated the Romans. But that wasn’t how the Lord wanted the church to be.

So the Lord sent Peter a troubling vision and put him on a mission to visit a Roman centurion (Acts 10:1-23). And Peter learned that he needed to change his mind. And when he saw that the Holy Spirit came on all the Gentiles who had heard the good news of salvation, Peter began to understand the wideness of God’s love for all people. So he called for these Gentiles be baptized in Jesus’ name.

Here God used Peter’s standing in the church to begin a crucial turning point in the history of the church. If you love Jesus, God loves you. It doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish or not. Jesus calls us to love and serve all of God’s children.

Lord, thank you for your love for people of every language and nation. Help us to love as you have loved us. Amen.