Before traveling into another country, it’s best to brush up on cultural standards and practices so that you don’t offend someone. For example, giving the “thumbs up” sign in America is considered a positive gesture, but in parts of the Middle East it is considered very offensive. Making eye-contact is generally considered respectful in America, but can be considered potentially confrontational in countries like Japan. In India, you would avoid touching someone with your left hand, as it’s considered unclean. These are points of etiquette, and are good to know. However, there are cultural standards that are far more significant; cultural divisions that mean life or death. One example is the Tutsi and Hutu conflict in Rwanda. For centuries, these tribes have hated each other, and murder between the two tribes is estimated at about 800,000. In Rwanda, turning down the wrong road could cost you your life.
Cultural standards can obviously be barriers to God’s will. In the Bible we read that for thousands of years the nation of Israel had been in contention with foreigners known as Gentiles. Gentiles were people who practiced polytheism: the belief in many gods. Jews looked down upon Gentiles, using common slurs like “dogs” when referring to them. In times of peace, Jews and Gentiles might do business together, but they wouldn’t intermarry, or consider each other friends. In fact, Jews had a law that forbid a Jew from entering into a Gentiles house. This wasn’t a law from God, but an oral law that was part of the cultural D.N.A. in Jesus’ day and further into the first century.
Cultural standards can hinder people to the point that they have a hard time accepting anything contrary, even from God. The Apostle Peter is an example. God gave Peter a vision to stop considering Gentiles as unfit. This happened when Peter went up on a rooftop to pray. Peter, “fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”, Acts 10:10-13. This vision had to do with the ceremonial law, which the nation of Israel had been under for centuries. According to the ceremonial law, animals that ate other dead animals were off limits. Jews couldn’t eat animals like shellfish, birds of prey, pigs, etc. The ceremonial law was cultural, and only applied to the Jews, as the Lord allowed Gentiles to each such foods with no consequence (Deuteronomy 14:21) as Gentiles were not a part of the covenant with God. Although the ceremonial law ended at the death of Christ, Peter was entrenched in such cultural practices, thus compelling Peter to refuse the Lord, saying, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean,” Acts 10:14.
Peter needed further prompting, “Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky,” Acts 10:15-17. The Lord was patient with Peter! This vision prepared Peter to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel, and to no longer see them as worthless dogs. Imagine spending your whole life thinking that certain people are the enemy, and to have the Lord basically saying, “Gentiles who believe are just as much a part of the body of Christ as you!” This was a hard pill for some to swallow.
Shortly after this vision, Peter is called to go to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion of the Italian cohort that was stationed in Caesarea. A centurion is an officer over a battalion of 100 men. Though Cornelius was a Gentile, he was a man who had heard about the God of the Scriptures and had a reverent respect for the Lord. Cornelius was not yet a believer, but he had put aside the practice of idol worship. Peter, along with some of his Christian brethren, came to Cornelius’ house. Peter was to the first Apostle to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Cornelius had a houseful of other Gentile guests who had come to hear Peter’s message. But before Peter shared the gospel, Peter reiterated how the cultural standards of the day were being broken, right there in their midst. In Acts 10:28-29, Peter says, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for.” When Peter says he came without raising objection, he’s not referring to the vision of the blanket of food, to which Peter did raise objection. He’s referring to the instruction that came later that day, to get up and accompany the men sent from Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:19-20), to which he quickly obliged.
Peter preached the gospel to those listening in Cornelius’ household. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, ‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’ And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days,” Acts 10:44-48. Peter and his Christian companions, those “circumcised believers who came with Peter,” were witnesses to the great display of God bringing salvation to Gentiles here in Judea.
Word had spread around Jerusalem that Gentiles had received the word of God and had been indwelt with the Holy Spirit and were baptized. This was burdensome news to some of the Jewish converts to Christianity, who confronted Peter, “saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them,’” Act 11:3. They were so busy being mad that Peter entered a Gentile’s home and dined with them, that they didn’t pause to consider the grace of God. The Jewish converts to Christianity were quick to dismiss the idea of Gentiles converting to Christianity. Isn’t that a sickening cultural standard? Have you ever convinced yourself that some people are too unfit to be part of the kingdom of God, and that God’s grace should extend to you, but not others? Jonah thought that about the Ninevites, about 800 years prior to this (Jonah 3:10-4:1). What a shameful thing, but that’s what happened here in Jerusalem.
However, Peter explained everything to them, including the vision from God about the unclean foods, and how God had confirmed that salvation came to the Gentiles as evidenced by their speaking in tongues. Remember, speaking in tongues is certainly not a regular demonstration that one is saved, but here it served as evidence to Peter that the Gentiles really did become a part of the body of Christ. Once the believers in Jerusalem heard this report from Peter, “they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life,’” Acts 11:18. I love their response, they basically said, “Well, that settles it!” If God says it, then that’s how it is.
Thankfully the Christians in Jerusalem had a heart change once the evidence had shown that God was behind all this. It goes to show that we need to extend grace and patience to young Christians who are still immature in their faith. And remember, the sin you tolerate the least needs to be your own.
When considering cultural standards, we need to ask ourselves, “What does God think about this?” When cultural standards are weighed against the Word of God, we’ll see that they need serious adjusting. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The mark of a follower of Christ is that he will live with distinction; choosing Jesus over culture. John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”