The Lord was preparing Peter to visit the house of a Gentile Roman army officer - to tell him about Jesus and how to be saved (Acts 10:1-6). But Peter believed that God only welcomed Jews into His kingdom, and not Gentiles (unless they first became Jews). However the Old Covenant, which spiritually de-prioritised Gentiles, was superseded by the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:25). It was God's purpose to save everybody who believes in Jesus, irrespective of their religious roots or ethnic tradition (John 3:16). However, the greatest obstacle was the attitude of the apostles – they must be taught not to spiritually discriminate in God's kingdom.

While Peter was waiting for lunch, he was resting on the roof of the house of Simon the Tanner in Joppa. There he had a vision of all kinds of animals which the Jews were not allowed to eat (Acts 10:10-12). The Lord commanded him to get up, kill the animals and eat them. But Peter refused, protesting that he could not bring himself to do so, because he prided himself on keeping the law under the Old Covenant.

The vision faded but then came back again with a rebuke not to despise anything that God had made clean. Then again the sight of all the ceremonially unclean creatures came back to Peter. It was powerful, but puzzling and unforgettable. As Peter came to full consciousness he wondered what the vision meant. Almost immediately, the three men who had been sent from Caesarea by Cornelius the centurion arrived at the house, looking for Peter (Acts 10:7-8). The Lord was preparing him to abandon his prejudices and change his opinion about telling the Gentiles about Jesus.

Our problem will not be the same, but spiritual prejudice can seriously harm the proclamation of the gospel and the growth of the church. Naturally, we subconsciously divide the people we know into two groups: those we think might believe in Jesus, and those we think will not. While we might witness to the first group, we ignore the possibility of a gospel encounter with the second. That is spiritual prejudice which is arrogant and wrong. We cannot tell whose hearts God will stir through the gospel. Previous hostility does not rule out conversion (Acts 22:4-7). Neither does past interest predict future repentance (Acts 17:32). So we must speak of Jesus to all and let every day be a gospel adventure with Him.