Acts 10.1-35
"I now realize how true it is that
God does not
show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is
right…"
Earlier in this passage of scripture
Peter explained to the people gathered in Cornelius' house that it was against
the law for him (as a Jew)
to associate with a Gentile or to even visit him.
However, as Peter went on to explain, God had told him that he wasn't to consider any person "impure or unclean."
Peter wasn't to consider anyone as being less in God's eyes than he considered himself to be. This was a powerful refutation of the very cornerstone of Jewish nationalism.
This continued to be a struggle for Peter. Years later he would face off, in Paul's words, 'toe to toe' with the Apostle Paul over this very issue of who were God's favorites - in terms of race/nation.
It is strange that the same issue is still being propounded by so many Christians today.
It is exactly this issue that is so divisive in the U.S. currently over undocumented workers.
It is exactly this issue that is so divisive in the current discussion over Israel and Palestine.
It is exactly this issue that is so divisive in the discussion over how the industrialized nations should view resource allocation with the 'bottom billion' people around the world who are dying of disease and starvation due to abject poverty.
God addressed this issue a long time ago. Anyone who considers himself to be God's child has no right to be entitled and withholding from those in need.
Isaiah 58:6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10. and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
Jeremiah 22:15 "Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
16. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.
I John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
18. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.