Reading through Acts 11:1-18 today, a section of scripture I
have read many times before, I realized I never really read it. I only looked to it for justification for
eating what food I wanted. As I read and
made some notes to myself I kept coming up with new questions. Questions like:
Do I use this scripture correctly in my interactions with
others?
Do I focus on being able to eat whatever I want and not on
being led by the Holy Spirit?
Do I use it to justify myself or to uphold what God has
established?
I really don/t like these challenging questions. I would much rather think that I have it all
figured out and just go forward from there.
I like the idea that I do everything right but the reality is that I
rarely do anything perfectly. I took
apart these questions in my own heart and began to digest the bitter pill that
they are for me. I am praying about them
and trying to answer them in my own way for my own better understanding. So far this is what I understand or don’t
understand.
I try very hard to use all scripture in the proper context
and to look at it from the beginning to the end as a complete thought not a
patch work of ideas stuck together.
However, at this I do fail from time to time and fall into what is easy
and not go the distance to make a complete understanding of what I have
read.
I do focus this set of scripture toward eating whatever I
want even though that is not what it is teaching at all. I hardly even recognized the Holy Spirit was
so involved in this section of scripture before and that God might be saying
something more than what is made by God is clean.
I don’t think I have ever used it to justify God only to
uphold my own justification. I am not
sure that I ever looked at it as anything other than a justification for eating
food.
As I pull this apart in my own life and pray about it I ask
you to do the same. Is there a verse or
section of verses that you use for your own justification and not the upholding
of who God is? I challenge you to look
for that scripture which you use the most and see if you are using it not only
in context but to hold up God, raising Jesus up for His glory? I pray that we can all do this for our
betterment and closer walk to our Lord and Savior Jesus.
