The apostles and the brothers and sisters throughout Judea heard that even the Gentiles had welcomed God’s word. 2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him.3 They accused him, “You went into the home of the uncircumcised and ate with them!” 4 Step-by-step, Peter explained what had happened. 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying when I had a visionary experience. In my vision, I saw something like a large linen sheet being lowered from heaven by its four corners. It came all the way down to me. 6 As I stared at it, wondering what it was, I saw four-legged animals—including wild beasts—as well as reptiles and wild birds. 7 I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’ 8 I responded, ‘Absolutely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ (Acts 11:1-8, CEB)
This is an interesting passage out of context. It stops at Peter saying that he would never eat anything dirty or unclean. The word that my bible uses is “common.” Reading only this passage, I was honestly somewhat confused as to what the point of the dream was, and what it was supposed to illustrate. Reading on, the same voice says to Peter, “Do not call unclean what God has made clean.” Peter goes on to the house of a gentile and baptizes him and his entire family, making them ‘clean.’ Verse 17 says “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave to us when we believed in Jesus Christ, then who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
It goes to show that we should not judge others, because we can never say that we truly know what is in their hearts or minds, just as we certainly can never truly know what is in the mind of God. If God has forgiven someone, why shouldn’t we? We have no way of saying that a person is ‘deserving’ of God’s forgiveness or not, because none of us are ‘deserving,’ and that is the point. We are all a part of God’s creation, and as such we all are created good and have been made clean by God. Who are we to stand in the way of that?