Then Peter began to speak: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right. Acts 10:34-35

Luke’s account of the early church is a powerful lesson in the destructive forces of an ‘Us and Them’ mentality.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see that many Jews had accepted Jesus, but struggled to accept His gentile (non-Jewish) believers.

​​​​In the Jewish mind God was theirs – He always had been and always would be. And they couldn’t see that ever changing.

You can almost hear the cries of the Jewish believers, ‘But God still belongs to us!’

What they failed to see was that Jesus had changed things.

The Apostle Peter shared this misunderstanding until he received a vision from God, recorded in Acts 10.

It was a change of heart that altered the course of history.

Peter’s message to the early Church is the same to us today – God’s community isn’t divided by some imaginary line, it is not defined by race or gender, job status or fashion sense, the mistakes people make or the ones they are still making.

Our friendship groups are often described as our ‘social circles’ – there are people that are inside that circle and those that are out.

God’s circle has no fixed diameter. Two thousand years ago Jesus stretched His circle in a way that challenged His Jewish followers. He’s calling us to do the same today.

Let’s continue to expand His circle deeper and wider into our communities at every opportunity we get.

Lord, help me to see and pursue opportunities to expand Your circle today. Amen

P.S. ADRA projects play a vital role in supporting and connecting people in need, here in Australia and around the world. If you’d like to be part of this, please donate online or call 1800 242 372.