ACCEPTABLE TO GOD - PART 1

TUESDAY 08 OCTOBER 2024

I am introducing a new topic which denotes the "accepted status" of those who fear the Lord and do what is right. Indeed, Peter observed very clearly that God shows no favoritism.

While the biblical reference below is clearly centered on the two bases of reasoning - which are wholly consistent with the behavioural propensity of those accepted by God, it is not specifically apparent about whether those who fear Him and do what is right are only the born again Christians.

Curiously speaking, are they the very ones Jesus paid the ransom with His life? This is an unspoken or implicit connotation within the versified reference below. But by His grace, the answer will be divulged by my precious "humble" self in the process of presenting the expository knowledge of this topic in a written thematic intelligibility. More below!

Reference: Acts 10:34-35 New Living Translation (NLT)

'So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to Him."'

Why did Peter begin to speak in this manner: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right"? The one who fears God is alike in significance, when compared with the person that does what is right, meaning that the two courses of action can be so closely or essentially connected in a human mind, such that the first one could indicate the existence of the other. Or is it possible to fear God and not be doing what is right?

Furthermore, was God Himself introduced as speaking through Peter? Was Peter's articulated "saying" a deep wisdom, translated into a peculiar or unorthodox understanding, having stretched his ability and spiritual senses (by God through a vision) to see over and beyond his usual horizon? Before answering these questions one by one, let us consider the context of our referenced Scripture based on this topic - in the brief Biblical passage below:

"Just as two slaves and a devout soldier under the command of Cornelius were nearing Joppa about noon the next day, Peter went up on the flat rooftop of Simon the tanner’s house. He planned to pray, but he soon grew hungry. While his lunch was being prepared, Peter had a vision of his own - a vision that linked his present hunger with what was about to happen: A rift opened in the sky, and a wide container - something like a huge sheet suspended by its four corners - descended through the torn opening toward the ground. This container teemed with four-footed animals, creatures that crawl, and birds - pigs, bats, lizards, snakes, frogs, toads, and vultures.

A Voice: Get up, Peter! Kill! Eat!

Peter: No way, Lord! These animals are forbidden in the dietary laws of the Hebrew Scriptures! I've never eaten nonkosher foods like these before - not once in my life!

A Voice: If God calls something permissible and clean, you must not call it forbidden and dirty! Peter saw this vision three times; but the third time, the container of animals flew up through the rift in the sky, the rift healed, and Peter was confused and unsettled as he tried to make sense of this strange vision" (Acts 10:9-17 Voice).

I believe that the above versified passage narrated as a vision, is self-explanatory. However we can gain an observatory enlightenment that Peter was recognizably guilty of opposing God's presented creatures as his meal in the vision, because they were forbidden in the dietary laws of the Hebrew Scriptures! But later on, he decrypted the underlying significance which is the focal element of our referenced Scripture. Stay tuned for the in-depth and comprehensive anatomization of this very interesting topic. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 19:23; Proverbs 20:7; Matthew 5:16.

Exuberant Declaration:

I acknowledge that the fear of the LORD leads to life, and he who has it and does what is right, is acceptable to God, and will abide in satisfaction. Praise God!