By Alex Florez
Scripture Reading: Acts 10:1-48, Isaiah 52:7-10, Galatians 3:27-28
I was coming of age in an era when movies and music began highlighting hip-hop gangster culture. My friends and I watched and listened and wished we could be part of that world. The swagger and the defiance, the unrepentant bravado and the effortless employment of language against which our parents were strongly advised—it was intoxicating.
Alas, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre never knocked on my door, “ready to make an entrance” and to invite me to hang out. Probably for the best.
It wasn’t in the cards for me to belong in the world of 90s hip-hop. But when I was 17, I read Acts 10 for the first time and learned about a God who stands eager and ready to invite even someone like me into His family. Regardless of pedigree, merit, or any other measurable qualification, the God of the Bible is radically inclusive.
The story of Peter meeting with the Gentile centurion Cornelius shatters any expectations we might have had about cultural exclusivity. Wrestling with the question of belonging, Peter concluded that “God doesn’t show favoritism but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34–35).
The notion that citizenship within God’s kingdom was available to people theretofore considered unqualified and unworthy was a scandal: “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles” (Acts 10:45).
Can you hear the weight of that phrase, “even the Gentiles”—how it squashes the idea that God’s favor would forever rest solely on one single people group? We can’t afford to miss the paradigm-shattering gravity that pulverizes even our own preconceptions about the nature of belonging.
The word Gentile comes from the Latin “gens,” which means people or nation. Whenever we encounter this word in Scripture prior to the book of Acts, we are to understand that the world consisted of two groups: God’s chosen people (the Israelites) and everyone else. It’s a basic “us and them” proposition.
And this was not unique to Abraham’s descendants. Every tribe, nation, fraternity, club, and secret society in history has defined itself by inherently exclusionary terms: To be one of us, you have to do this or wear that; eat this, but not that; be born here, not look like that; think the right thoughts and say the right words. Otherwise, you’re out.
Not so with Jesus. I praise God that my invitation to belong among His people is not based on my merits or qualifications. My access was purchased by blood willingly shed so that I could finally say, “These are my people; I am finally home.”
As messy and unpredictably variegated as we are, followers of Jesus have these essential qualities in common: our deep need of His mercy, our determination to belong, and our inherent design to desire a home in His presence above all else. He is where we belong.
Written by Alex Florez
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