v 45 The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too.
Just as Peter saw that God had no favourites, so he and his companions become blind to the differences. Their common experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit now bound Jew and Gentile in one fellowship of believers. Before this happened the Jewish believers would have been aware of the differences between them and any Gentiles, but now, in a positive sense, they become blind. They can now only see that God has granted to them all the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Blindness of this kind is something to be welcomed in a Christian fellowship. It is the blindness of ‘levelling-up’. We have all been raised to new life in Christ, we have all been lifted out of the mire of sin and into the beauty of being children of God; we have all been transported to the pathway that leads to glory and we have all been adopted into a new family. Unity supersedes differences and riches in Christ move us all out of the poverty of alienation. We are able to flourish together rather than languish in a sordid individuality that can only focus on the needs of the ‘ME’.
It would be tragic indeed if we claim to have seen the light in Christ and yet remain in the darkness of self.
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