Monday, March 16, 2020

In their own words: Day 20

Acts 15.11

We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as the Gentiles will.”

There are only two occasions recorded when Peter and Paul met. In Acts 15, Paul seeks support for his mission among the Gentiles, who did not keep the food laws and were not circumcised as Jewish men were. The argument wasn’t whether they could become “followers of the way” of Jesus, but whether they had to observe Jewish rules and be circumcised in order to do so. Peter and the other apostles decide that the Gentiles need not be circumcised, and should be accepted as they are. As Peter says, it is the grace of Jesus – his free gift of love – not keeping a set rules, which has enabled them all to find forgiveness and freedom. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians (2.11) describes a further meeting in Antioch, when Peter seems to waver in this, but it eventually became accepted throughout the church. Peter, the apostle who so often got it wrong, finally came to trust in the indestructible and spacious love of God for all.


·         What do you think of the figure of Peter whom you have met in these readings? What would you want to say to him if you met him? 

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