All Men Shall Know You...

May 7

“God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith,” Acts 15:8, 9.

Peter is here defending the concept of equality. It is the basis of the Western concept that all people are created equal in the sight of our God. Until this declaration, women did not enjoy a high place on the societal ladder. Many lines of discrimination were drawn in other cultures for various reasons. But the Jewish people had enjoyed a uniqueness in the eyes of Jehovah that no other nations could claim.

Because they alone were believers in the One True and Living God, they were required by Him to separate themselves from the other people of the world. They could have limited contact required for commerce and they did at times form military allegiances with other nations (although God never sanctioned their doing so); but they were not to intermarry and they were not to intertwine their lives with those of unbelievers.

Peter recognized the enormous change that occurred when God poured His Holy Spirit upon gentiles. No longer would there be a wall of separation between the Jews who espoused Christ and their gentile counterparts. Forever, they would be bound together with the strong chords of God’s love as it was manifested to all mankind through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

As Peter proclaimed, there would no longer be any distinction between men, for any man whose heart has been purified by faith in the Lord is now one with all other believers.

Today, that policy of inclusion is still in place. Today, we who profess Christ are still expected to, “Love one another as I have loved you,” John 13:34. Our love is to be without regard to race or skin color or nationality of origin or any other point of difference between ourselves and others. Nor are we are to allow any man-made wall of separation to be between us and our brothers in Christ.

Although we must never compromise the integrity of the truth we hold in these earthen vessels (see II Corinthians 4:7) we cannot let points of minor differences alienate us from our brothers. The Holy Spirit who has been given to us by faith will also enable us to appropriate to ourselves the love of God that never fails, I Corinthians 13:8.

With His help, we shall then fulfill the word that assures us, “All men shall know you are My disciples by your love,” John 13:35.