Our world suffers color, ethnic...
Illustration
Our world suffers color, ethnic, and racial divisions. The early church faced prejudice
problems, too. Beginning as an all-Jewish movement, some believers thought it should
remain that way. They resented Peter's Spirit-led mingling with the Gentile, Cornelius, in
Caesarea. "So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized
him."
"We're related to the Queen of England," my mother used to tell us when my siblings and I were young. She spoke derisively of my dad's origins basing her judgment mostly on his parents' modest circumstances.
When my dad retired, he and my mother researched their genealogies. They never uncovered any royal connections on my mother's side. My father, however, could trace his roots to about the twelfth century.
It proved my mother's early "snootiness" unfounded. She and my dad discovered good and not-so-good ancestors on both sides of the family and later laughed about it. Because all of us have descended from Adam, the in-between-lines are pointless.
None of us is worth a raft of rancid rats' nests unless adopted anew into God's family by Christ's mercy. His is the only special line worth our concern. Peter's critics were wrong. So are those who make prejudicial judgments of any kind.
"We're related to the Queen of England," my mother used to tell us when my siblings and I were young. She spoke derisively of my dad's origins basing her judgment mostly on his parents' modest circumstances.
When my dad retired, he and my mother researched their genealogies. They never uncovered any royal connections on my mother's side. My father, however, could trace his roots to about the twelfth century.
It proved my mother's early "snootiness" unfounded. She and my dad discovered good and not-so-good ancestors on both sides of the family and later laughed about it. Because all of us have descended from Adam, the in-between-lines are pointless.
None of us is worth a raft of rancid rats' nests unless adopted anew into God's family by Christ's mercy. His is the only special line worth our concern. Peter's critics were wrong. So are those who make prejudicial judgments of any kind.
