“As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
Unfortunately, I have seen this behavior (objections about who is worthy to follow Christ) in the Christian community today. You'd think that 2000 years would have given us enough time to learn to live like Christ! I hate that I judge people and stereotype them or fail to give them a fair chance to be themselves by putting them in a box in my mind. Prejudices and preconceived ideas are still a daily part of life on earth. I hate that it takes me time and hard work to do what should be natural to me - treat others fairly, as I would like to be treated. But we all know that often Christians are seen as the worst abusers of hypocrisy. I don't know what we get so territorial with what we believe and become so self righteous that we think the gift of God is given to every single human. I'm glad that this story in Acts was recorded for future generations of Christians to use as a "how to" guide for letting go of your ownership of God's grace and realizing that because God chose you, it doesn't mean that He didn't also offer the same thing to everyone.
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