God Doesn’t Call It Unclean
There's a moment in Acts 10 that captures something so many of us wrestle with: what happens when God starts revealing something to you that doesn't match what you've always believed?
Let’s set the scene.
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. (Acts 10:1-2)
Cornelius wasn't Jewish. He was a Gentile — a Roman military officer. But Luke tells us he was devout and God-fearing, which means he believed in the one true God and tried to live by Jewish moral standards, even though he hadn't formally converted through circumcision. He gave generously. He prayed regularly. By every outward measure, this was a good man.
GOOD DEEDS AREN'T THE SAME AS SALVATION
Here's the hard truth we have to sit with before we go any further: Cornelius was doing all the right things, and he was still separated from God.
That might sound harsh, but it's exactly what Scripture teaches. Paul tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23), that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10), and that even our righteous acts are like filthy rags before a holy God. Cornelius's prayers and generosity were good things — things God wants from all of us — but they weren't enough to close the gap between him and God. He was missing eternal life because he didn't yet have Jesus (1 John 5:12).
I think this matters for us today more than we realize. It's entirely possible to be a good person, a religious person, even a churchgoing person, and still be missing the one thing that actually saves you. Salvation is not something we work our way toward. It's a gift we receive.
So what does a loving God do when someone is sincerely seeking Him but doesn't yet know the way? He goes and finds them.
AN ANGEL, A VISION, AND A LOT OF WALKING
One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea." (Acts 10:3-6)
Notice what God doesn't do here. He doesn't have the angel simply explain the gospel to Cornelius on the spot. Instead, He sends Cornelius on a 30-plus mile round trip to fetch a man named Peter.
Why go to all that trouble?
Because God has chosen to entrust the message of the gospel to people, not to angels. Because God has some things He still needs to work out in Peter's own heart before this meeting happens. And because what's about to unfold is such a significant turning point that it will take Peter — a recognized leader in the early church — to confirm it and help the church understand what God is doing.
Cornelius didn't get an explanation. He just got an instruction. And to his credit, he obeyed without knowing where it would lead.
When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. (Acts 10:7-8)
That's real faith — being willing to move forward on what God has shown you, even when you don't yet see the whole picture.
PETER'S TURN
While those men were making their way to Joppa, God was already at work preparing Peter.
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. (Acts 10:9-16)
To understand why this shook Peter so deeply, you have to understand the dietary laws God had given the Jewish people under the Old Covenant. Those food laws served two main purposes: they set Israel apart visibly from other nations, and they pointed to the reality that a holy God requires holiness — something no one can produce on their own. In many ways, the law (including the food laws) was never meant to be the finish line. It was meant to reveal our need for a Savior, to show us that we can't make ourselves clean.
Peter didn't know all of that yet. All he knew was a lifetime of being taught that these foods were forbidden. So when God told him otherwise, his gut reaction was flat refusal — not once, but it took three times before it started to sink in.
I find that oddly comforting, honestly. Even Peter, a man who walked with Jesus, needed God to repeat Himself before he could accept a truth that didn't match what he'd always been taught.
I've been there myself. When I first started studying what it means to live as a New Covenant believer — no longer under the written code but led by the Spirit — I pushed back. I'd spent years hearing it taught a certain way, and this felt like a departure from that. But Scripture kept confronting me with passages like this one:
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ... Now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4, 6)
It was right there in black and white. I just didn't want to believe it yet. But the Spirit kept bringing me back to it, the same way He kept bringing that sheet back down to Peter — until I could finally accept what God was saying.
THE VISION WAS NEVER JUST ABOUT FOOD
While Peter was still turning the vision over in his mind, the men from Cornelius showed up at the gate.
While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them." (Acts 10:19-20)
Why would the Spirit need to specifically tell Peter not to hesitate? Because these men were Gentiles — and a devout Jewish person of that era simply didn't associate with Gentiles. They were considered unclean, outside the boundaries of who God's people were supposed to engage with. Somewhere along the way, what God intended as a call to be set apart had hardened into pride and prejudice.
So the Spirit essentially had to say, "I know your instinct is going to be to hesitate when you see who these men are. Go anyway. I sent them."
And Peter did.
Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?" The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. (Acts 10:21-23)
That last line is easy to skim past, but it's remarkable. Peter didn't just agree to travel with them — he brought Gentiles into his home as guests, something that would have been unthinkable the day before. That's what it looks like when someone actually listens to the Spirit rather than clinging to what's always felt normal.
The vision was never really about the food. God was using it to dismantle a much bigger wall — the idea that Gentiles were unclean and outside the reach of the gospel. Jesus didn't die for one nation or ethnicity. He died for all people, and anyone who responds to Him in faith belongs to His church, regardless of background.
WILL YOU STAY OPEN?
Sometimes, even as believers, God has to change our minds about things we were sure were true.
Peter was already a new creation in Christ. God was already using him powerfully. And he still had beliefs that needed to be corrected — beliefs about clean and unclean, about who was in and who was out. If that was true for Peter, it's certainly true for us.
So the question worth asking is this: when the Spirit starts nudging you toward something that doesn't match what you've always been taught, what do you do? Do you harden your heart and walk away? Or do you stay open and say, "God, I don't know if this is from You. It sounds different than what I've heard before. But if it is You, show me — I'm listening"?
I've watched people go both ways. Some have hardened and missed out on experiencing God’s grace. Others have wrestled through the discomfort and come out the other side living in a freedom they didn't know was available to them. That freedom is real, and it's worth pursuing.
