Verse 15
The Transition from the Old to the New.
I. The questions raised by this narrative are not met by the simple consideration of the narrow prejudice and even bigotry of the apostle of the circumcision, and the liberal teachings of the vision which inaugurated a new era in the heart of the apostle, and through him in the world. From our Christian standpoint the views were narrow narrow as the discipline of school is to the student, narrow as the discipline of the student seems to the man. But whatever they might be, they were God's handiwork; and that is a matter much overlooked in the judgment of a boastfully liberal age like this. God knew how much zeal for God was at the bottom of the "not so" of His sturdy servant, and dealt gently with prejudices which hitherto had been a shield to all that was most precious to Peter's heart. Consider the exclusions of the Mosaic law. Read Leviticus 11:2-20 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21 . Let us, while we see how much prejudices like Peter's, blindly nursed, would stand in the way of progress, recognise how much good there was in his steady determination to cleave to that which, for the present, had strong evidence of being Divine.
II. In the early stages of human culture nothing is strong enough to curb man's desires on the one hand, and to stimulate the exercise of the faculties of discernment and election on the other, but the solemn power of religion. And God began from the beginning with the Jews, and made the simplest matters of right or prudence matters of religion from the very first. They were to eat every morsel, frequent every place, and fulfil every function of personal or social life, "because He, the Lord their God, the holy God," would have it so.
III. The progress of society has tended to release men from these bands of religious law, and to bring all that concerns man's welfare and culture under the influence of the special faculties which have charge of the separate departments of his life. The progress of Christianity tends to place all man's acts or habits under the rule of his natural faculties, given to him for this very end, and to make the right use of those faculties the most sacred duty of his life before God. First law, then liberty, in order to the discovery of the diviner law, "the perfect law of liberty," wherein to continue is to be blessed.
J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, May 12th, 1875.
References: Acts 10:15 . J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 296; C. Morris, Preacher's Lantern, vol. iii., p. 440.
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