Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – how wrong can I get it! I need new eyes that see clearly.
Acts 10:15,28,34 NLT
[15] But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”
28] Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.
34] Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism.”
Observation
What would this world be like if we all could see as Peter saw – “God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.” The way we see people is the way we respond to them. For too long religion has classed people as clean or unclean, in or out, right and wrong. The cross sits as the climax of the story, but its power to change how we see people has not changed us. I claim it’s good news for me, but I don’t extend it to others.
The cross declares – Everyone stands forgiven and clean by Jesus. It’s a completed act that stands unchanged for every person. God invites us to see as He sees, everyone covered by the blood of Jesus. Maybe if we laid down the placards and judgment and just carried the story of forgiven and right with God then people would meet God and have their lives transformed.
God did not come to remove all impurity from my life, He came to make me right with Him in my uncleanness. He came to live intimately with all of us, in every context and situation of life. He destroyed the labels of unclean and impure by the fullness of forgiveness. Heaven and eternity hold the place for complete freedom from impurity, but this life is a walk towards that time. So why when I cannot claim cleanness for myself do I think that I have the right to label others impure? There is no favouritism with God based on good behaviour or any other criteria we can manufacture. We are all the same – forgiven, and we are all invited – into an intimate relationship.
I am so disappointed and distraught, that in the name of God we so often call someone unclean that God has made clean. How this must break God’s heart. The law book has been burnt, the measuring stick broken, the earn and deserve modality replaced – by unearned, unmerited, unending forgiveness for all. The only label left for all of us is – forgiven, accepted, and right with God. Let’s call everyone by God’s declared status.
Application
I need fresh eyes to see others. I will “no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.” I will lay down all my imperfect floored and faulty judgments for the eyes that God intended for me.
Response
Thank you that you call me into a place of such perfect peace where I don’t sit in the seat of judgment that is way beyond my capacity. Thank you that you do not call me unclean or impure despite the evidence that clearly would condemn me to these labels. Thank you that life in you is about acceptance, forgiveness, and love, this is the shape I want my life to be moulded by, my eyes to be visioned by, my labels to be shaped by. You lead me into such fullness of life, I am blessed.
Meditation
Meditation truth – “no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.”
Consider:
How often do you judge others as unclean or impure?
Are forgiveness, love, and rightness the story shaping your life and the message of your life?
JOURNEY DEEPER
