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.
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11:4 Peter laid all things before them - So he did not take it ill to be questioned, nor desire to be treated as infallible.And he answers the more mildly because it related to a point which he had not readily believed himself.
11:5 Being in a trance - Which suspends the use of the outward senses.
11:14 Saved - With the full Christian salvation, in this world and the world to come.
11:17 To us, when we believed - The sense is, because we believed, not because we were circumcised, was the Holy Ghost given to us.What was I - A mere instrument in God's hand. They had inquired only concerning his eating with the Gentiles. He satisfies them likewise concerning his baptizing them, and shows that he had done right in going to Cornelius, not only by the command of God, but also by the event, the descent of the Holy Ghost. And who are we that we should withstand God? Particularly bylaying down rules of Christian communion which exclude any whom he has admitted into the Church of the first born, from worshipping God together. O that all Church governors would consider how bold an usurpation this is on the authority of the supreme Lord of the Church! O that the sin of thus withstanding God may not be laid to the charge of those, who perhaps with a good intention, but in an over fondness for their own forms, have done it, and are continually doing it.
11:18 They glorified God - Being thoroughly satisfied. Repentance unto life - True repentance is a change from spiritual death to spiritual life, and leads to life everlasting.