Today's Devotion

Friday, July 3, 2026 - Acts 11:1-18

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Now that the Gentiles have been received into the church – by the Holy Spirit and by the apostles – there is friction with some Jewish believers from a faction known as “the circumcision party.” For their bottom line was that the Old Covenant law of circumcision abides within the New Covenant, that Gentile converts to Christianity were obliged to be circumcised (as well as following the dietary restrictions of Old Testament Israel). In the Old Testament, a lack of circumcision made Gentiles unclean. But as Peter explained what our Lord told him in a vision, “I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). And Peter witnessed the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the uncircumcised (Acts 10:44).

But the church back in Jerusalem was divided. Jewish believers were skeptical. And in fact, they were scandalized: “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” Peter explained the entire turn of events. “When they heard these things, they fell silent.” These particular Jewish believers “glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

For the Christian faith is not only for Jews. It is not only for people living in Jerusalem, nor only in Judea, not even only extending to Samaria, but to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And as St. Luke recorded our Lord Himself saying: “People will come from the east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:29-30). Isaiah spoke prophetically about Jesus opening the kingdom to the whole world, extending the Promise beyond the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious” (Isa 11:10).

So there was a division between the Jewish believers. Some recognized the will of God to extend Israel beyond political borders to “all nations” (Matt 28:19), while others saw Gentiles as having to essentially convert to Judaism in order to follow Jesus. This is soon to reach a breaking point (Acts 15).

And St. Paul’s ministry will be plagued by “the circumcision party.” Paul will himself use this same term, even having to remind Peter of his own vision when Peter fell back into his old habits of excluding Gentiles: “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” (Gal 2:11-14). The single Greek word translated as “to live like Jews” is sometimes translated as “to Judaize.”

In fact, Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians is all about this “different gospel” of burdening Gentile believers with Old Testament regulations from which Christ has freed us (Gal 1:6). This theme of Christian liberty extends beyond Old Testament Jewish practices. It lays out our freedom in the Gospel, as Paul sums it up: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.