(Thoughts after reading Ch.14 of “Do Not Call Anything Impure what God has Made Clean” by H. C. Kim)

In Acts Chapter 10–11, we see two groups of Christians approaching the gentiles with the gospel of the Kingdom. First group was led by the great apostle Peter, and the other were some unknown Christians whom we only know were from Cyprus and Cyrene.

The unraveling of history recorded here is quite remarkable; to see this we must understand the obstacles faced by the Church at that time. Apparently there were some unsettled issue among Christians (mostly consisted of Jews at that time) on how to treat the circumcision—the mark of the holy covenant of God. They didn’t yet have the full understanding that now the King, our Lord Jesus Christ, has been glorified, he has declared a new economy of the Kingdom with a better covenant made with His blood, which the previous covenant was the shadow of, and that He established baptism as the sacrament of the new covenant, its role replacing that of the circumcision. A deep exposition on this whole matter is given to us in the epistles of Paul; but in Acts 10 and 11 that is yet to come and many Christians thought that the first step of entering the covenant community, namely the Church, is to become one of the circumcised and bare the mark of, which we now know as, the old covenant. 

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