But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. Acts 10:14
Do you know the difference between wading in a brook and swimming in that same brook? The difference might not seem huge, but it is a very big difference, especially someone brought up like me in a strict Baptist home in the 1950s. Wading in a brook was OK any day of the week. But swimming in the brook was OK only Monday to Saturday. Swimming was absolutely forbidden on Sunday, and on the one occasion when my sisters and I tried it, we were severely chastized. Swimming was a violation of the Lord’s Day, and that restriction was deeply engrained into our conscience. Even today, I would prefer if you did not invite me to go swimming on the Lord’s day. I won’t say I have never done it, but I will say I have never been comfortable doing it. So I know a little bit how Peter felt when the Lord tried to push him outside of his religious comfort zone. Has He ever tried to push us outside of our religious comfort zone?
Peter’s comfort zone was very deeply entrenched in the Jewish culture in which he lived. The delights of a breakfast of bacon and eggs, or snacking on a butter-dipped lobster tail would cause him to shudder in righteous disgust. Those things were wrong, and he would never do them. So when the Lord told him to partake of creatures that he knew to be ceremonially unclean, his refusal was quick and definite. But the Lord had a deeper meaning for Peter than merely that of accepting food that had previously been categorized as unclean. Yes, the restriction on these animals was now lifted. But so were the restrictions on everything else that the Lord had approved. And if God issues a command, there are no restrictions to keep in place to prevent us from following that command.
Preaching the Gospel is a public work that God has given to brothers; so sisters are excused from this work, right? Wrong. Sisters are excused from only the public preaching part of the work. And at God’s leading, they are at liberty to support the work in many ways, including financial, attendance at meetings, inviting people to meetings, bringing people to meetings, sharing Gospel tracts, and many others. But sisters are not the only ones who have a comfort zone that may not be scriptural. Sometimes we are shocked when somebody violates the expected order of things in one of our meetings. If they were led of the Lord to do so, why not? Have you heard of the brother who dresses in a clown costume so he can give out Gospel tracts during holiday parades? We must make sure we are not violating Scripture. But we must also make sure that we don’t consider scriptural those things that are not.
Let us not be afraid of doing something that is uncomfortable to us as long as we know that it is what the Lord wants us to do. -Jim MacIntosh