The Household of Cornelius

Cornelius “feared God” (verse 2). This was a technical term that the Jews used to refer to pagans who had abandoned, or did not follow, the pagan religions, but instead favored the worship of Jehovah.  Gentiles at this time and place in the world could have varying degrees of adherence to Judaism.  They could be benefactors like the centurion in Luke 7:1-10, who supported the Jewish community and presumably were sympathetic to Jewish beliefs.  There were “God-fearers” like the one here in our text, Acts 10:2, and others such as Acts 13:16, 16:14, 17:4.  There is an important mention of this category of “God-fearers” in an inscription from approximately 210 A.D. in Aphrodisias in modern Turkey.  

Love is Patient and Kind

“Love is patient.  Love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4). The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13focus on the emptiness produced when love is absent. In verses 4-5, we find the most comprehensive biblical description of the fullness of love. Paul shines love through a prism, and we see fifteen of its colors and hues – the spectrum of…

Pigments of Our Imagination

I grew up on the fuzzy, flapping fringe of the color line in the United States. My paternal grandmother had five generations of Cherokees behind her, and before that it was several of the “First nations people” of Canada who got together with my Scottish and French ancestors on my grandmother’s side, which makes me,…

Love Does Not…

“Above all keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) Godly love and sin are incompatible. Christians are to be patient when personally wronged and righteous when God is wronged! While men may feign that their love, “just loves no matter what, and that is all there is…

Are You Looking for God?

Do you ever feel unfulfilled or, incomplete? “…but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,” sang Bono in the 1980’s. “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you O God. My soul thirsts for you, O God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”…