So, when does doing the right thing become the wrong thing?
Peter faced that question on a rooftop in Joppa. He went there to pray while someone downstairs prepared his meal. Waiting, Peter grew hungry, but before the food arrived, God interrupted his prayers with a vision that challenged almost everything he understood about being a Jew.
Peter watched as a large sheet descended from heaven. As the sheet unfurled, he saw all kinds of animals inside. Then a voice told him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat” (Acts 10:13, NKJV).
But Peter knew better.
Long before he followed Jesus through Galilee, Peter learned what a faithful Jew could and couldn’t eat. The Law of Moses identified those foods as clean and unclean. Peter took those commands seriously. Nothing in his experience prepared him to hear God tell him to eat what God had forbidden.
So Peter did what felt right at the time. He said no.
“But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean’” (Acts 10:14, NKJV).
Peter wasn’t looking for an excuse to disobey God. Just the opposite. Everything Peter knew told him that saying no meant obeying what God previously commanded.
That was the problem. Peter’s commitment wasn’t in question; his understanding was. What God told him on that rooftop didn’t fit what Peter already knew.
The vision came three times.
While Peter still thought about what he saw, men arrived at the house asking for him. Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a Gentile outside the Jewish community, sent them. As Peter wondered why they came, God told him to go with them.
That trip required more than traveling from Joppa to Caesarea. It required Peter to enter the home of a Gentile, something Peter understood a faithful Jew should not do. By the time Peter crossed that threshold, he understood the vision differently. Later Peter explained what God taught him through the vision: “But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28, NKJV).
The vision began with animals, but God was preparing Peter for people.
Cornelius was waiting.
Peter entered Cornelius’ house and preached Jesus. While he spoke, the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles who listened. This amazed the Jewish believers who traveled with Peter.
Suddenly, the rooftop vision made sense. God’s grace reached farther than Peter understood, and now he could see that. It took God to enlarge his understanding.
We face the same problem.
We read Scripture and try to follow Jesus. Along the way, we rely on what we’ve learned about following Him. But sometimes we trust those things more than we realize.
Then something doesn’t fit.
God does something we didn’t expect. What we were taught doesn’t explain it, and what worked before doesn’t work now. We try to make sense of it, but we can’t.
That’s when fear and anxiety take over. We keep turning it over in our minds, trying to make what God does fit what we understand. Sometimes we even argue with Him.
Peter certainly did. “Not so, Lord.”
Proverbs tells us, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, NKJV).
Peter didn’t need to understand everything God did with the Gentiles before he went to Cornelius’ house. He needed to trust God enough to go.
That doesn’t mean truth changes whenever God shows us something we didn’t understand before. God didn’t ask Peter to discard the Scripture he already knew. Instead, Peter had to take what he learned from Scripture and understand how it fit with what God was showing him then.
That day, God did more than change Peter’s mind about what he should and shouldn’t eat. The vision went much deeper than that. What began with food would reach into the life of the church.
What happened in Cornelius’ house fundamentally changed the church. From that day forward, Gentiles didn’t need to become Jews before they could come to Christ.
From that rooftop, Peter couldn’t see where his vision would lead. At first, all he saw were animals forbidden as food under Jewish law that God now told him to eat. Only later did he understand that God was preparing him to welcome Gentiles into the church.
Peter’s problem brings us back to our question.
So, when does doing the right thing become the wrong thing? When holding on to what we understand keeps us from trusting the God we want to follow.
Peter faced that choice when he left Joppa. He didn’t know where God was taking him or what would happen when he got there. He only knew that following God meant going beyond what he understood.
We will face times when following God takes us beyond what we understand. Sometimes what He does won’t fit what we were taught or what worked for us in the past. That uncertainty may bring fear and anxiety, especially when we try to make everything fit what we already understand. But understanding isn’t what settles our fear. Trusting God is the place where angst becomes peace.
Fear and anxiety lose their grip when we place what we don’t understand in God’s hands and trust Him with it. That’s where peace begins.
About the Author
David Johnson is the co-founder and Director of Ministry at Laurel Mountain Ministries. He is an ordained minister, retired attorney, Bible teacher, and author who enjoys helping people discover God’s truth through practical Bible study. His latest book, PEACEMAKER: A Twelve Session Journey into the Heart of God’s Peace, is available on Amazon.