Today's reading describes the Christians' reaction to the conversion of Cornelius and his family. For the Church, such a conversion was...
Today's reading describes the Christians' reaction to the conversion of Cornelius and his family. For the Church, such a conversion was, without question, an extraordinary event. The first reaction to the news of it was, as we can see, hostile bewilderment (vv. 1-3).
There is nothing surprising here: even after entering the Kingdom, a person does not lose his individual characteristics, unless, of course, they contain sin. And until now the Christians had been only Jews who strictly observed the norms of ritual purity, as well as the other rules of the Jewish religion. Such devotion to their religion in itself, as we can see, did not keep them either from entering the Kingdom or from remaining in it; otherwise they could not have remained members of the Church. But now, when God had opened the way into the Church for proselytes who did not belong to the Jewish community, the question arose before them of how to respond to this fact.
It is interesting to note that Peter, while telling everything that had happened, does not even try to justify his actions with any religious arguments, evidently understanding no worse than his listeners that there are no such arguments. He simply tells them about the action of the Spirit of God, of which he had become both witness and participant (vv. 4-16). The only argument he gives lies outside the bounds of religion: Peter can appeal only to God and His will (v. 17). Then those who listened to him faced a choice: to accept Peter's testimony or to reject it as inconsistent with traditional religious norms.
The choice was serious enough, because religiosity, if one does not treat it lightly, permeates a person's whole life, shaping him in many ways and determining his system of values. It is very hard for a spiritually serious person to give up religion. This is why God does not prevent religious people from taking their religion with them into the Kingdom. But only insofar as it does not destroy the Kingdom itself or violate its laws. If religion forces a person to stand in the way of someone who seeks the Kingdom and whom God wants to bring into this Kingdom, then such religion must be parted with; otherwise the one clinging to his religion will part with the Kingdom. And the Christians, after listening to Peter, made their choice (v. 18): they chose the Kingdom.
11
11:19 They who had been dispersed - St. Luke here resumes the thread of his narration, in the very words wherewith he broke it off, Act 8:6. As far as Phenicia to the north, Cyprus to thewest, and Antioch to the east.
11:20 Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene - Who were more accustomed to converse with the Gentiles. Who coming into Antioch - Then the capital of Syria, and, next to Rome and Alexandria, the most considerable city of the empire. Spake to the Greeks - As the Greeks were the most celebrated of the Gentile nations near Judea, the Jews called all the Gentiles by that name. Here we have the first account of the preaching the Gospel to the idolatrous Gentiles. All those to whom it had been preached before, did at least worship one God, the God of Israel.
11:21 And the hand of the Lord - That is, the power of his Spirit.
11:26 And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch - Here it was that they first received this standing appellation.They were before termed Nazarenes and Galileans.
11:28 Agabus rising up - In the congregation. All the world - The word frequently signifies all the Roman empire. And so it is doubtless to be taken here.
11:29 Then - Understanding the distress they would otherwise be in on that account, the disciples determined to send relief to the brethren in Judea - Who herein received a manifest proof of the reality of their conversion.
11:30 Sending it to the elders - Who gave it to the deacons, to be distributed by them, as every one had need.