Changing a Culture Takes Time

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21)

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39)

It is clear in Scripture that when teachers were led by the Spirit to preach and prophesy, they did not always understand all the implications of what they said. The prophets of old did not fully grasp the meaning of all the prophesies about the coming Messiah. I say that to say this – When Peter was led by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, he said “everyone” could be saved. Everyone. Who were assembled on the Day of Pentecost? Jews. Who were baptized that day? Jews. And for quite awhile, that’s all that were saved. Don’t be mistaken, this was part of God’s plan (Romans 1:16), but Peter and the rest didn’t fully grasp the plan.

When God sent Peter to the Gentiles (Cornelius and his household) in Acts 10, it took quite a bit of convincing! Look at the miracles, visions, and direct intervention of the Holy Spirit that happened. This was needed to convince Peter and the rest of the Jews that the Gentiles could be accepted into God’s family just like the Jews.

Was that it? Once that happened, were the Jews and Gentiles one big, happy family? Not at all. Acts 15 is an account of the elders, apostles and the church at Jerusalem coming together to discuss this very issue. It was a great meeting, and the church was united. By the Holy Spirit’s guidance, letters were sent out to the churches to declare God’s will on accepting the Gentiles.

Peter must have forever had this issue settled in his own mind…right? From this point on, he never needed correcting again…right? Wrong. Read Galatians 2:11-14, and you will see that Peter lost sight of clear teaching and began to behave like a hypocrite. When the Jews came around, he withdrew from the Gentiles out of fear of the Jews. Paul had to rebuke him to the face about this. Peter was reminded by Paul of things he already knew.

So after Acts 15, was the issue of accepting Gentiles forever settled in the churches? Nope. Look at how much of the New Testament letters are devoted to helping Jews and Gentiles learn to live together in love. Romans, Galatians, Ephesians are three big examples of Paul helping churches to deal with the issues that came with Jews and Gentiles seeking to live together in harmony.

All this being said, what does that say today about changing the culture of a home, a church, a business, a community, or a nation? It takes a long time to change a culture. I had a roommate in college that put it this way, “If you were taught your whole life that 2+2=5, and you finally learn the truth about 2+2, you still instantly think 5 even though you have learned the right answer is 4.” It took Peter a long time, and the same was true for most of the early Christians as they made that transition.

Changing a culture takes lots of time.