Acts 10:9-15
What God Makes Clean
When he says, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean,” he speaks of meat, but this sentence must be extended unto all parts of life. The sense is that it is not for us to allow or condemn anything, but as we stand and fall by the judgment of God alone, so is he judge of all things (Romans 14:4).
On the subject of meat: After the abrogating of the Law, God pronounces that they are all pure and clean. If, on the other side, a mortal stands up, making a new difference, forbidding certain things, that person takes unto him or herself the authority and power of God by a sacrilegious boldness.
But let us trust to the heavenly oracle, and freely despise inhibitions. We must always ask the mouth of the Lord, that we may thereby be sure what we may lawfully do—so it was not lawful even for Peter to make something profane which was lawful by the Word of God. Furthermore, this is a place of great importance to beat down on the backwardness of people, which they make too many perverse judgments.
There is almost no one who does not grant liberty to herself or himself to judge other people’s doings. Now, as we are churlish and malicious, we lean more toward the worse part, so that we take from God that right to judge which is his. This message alone ought to suffice to correct such boldness: that it is not lawful for us to make this or that unclean, but that this power belongs to God alone.
Readings taken from Day by Day With John Calvin
What God Makes Clean
When he says, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean,” he speaks of meat, but this sentence must be extended unto all parts of life. The sense is that it is not for us to allow or condemn anything, but as we stand and fall by the judgment of God alone, so is he judge of all things (Romans 14:4).
On the subject of meat: After the abrogating of the Law, God pronounces that they are all pure and clean. If, on the other side, a mortal stands up, making a new difference, forbidding certain things, that person takes unto him or herself the authority and power of God by a sacrilegious boldness.
But let us trust to the heavenly oracle, and freely despise inhibitions. We must always ask the mouth of the Lord, that we may thereby be sure what we may lawfully do—so it was not lawful even for Peter to make something profane which was lawful by the Word of God. Furthermore, this is a place of great importance to beat down on the backwardness of people, which they make too many perverse judgments.
There is almost no one who does not grant liberty to herself or himself to judge other people’s doings. Now, as we are churlish and malicious, we lean more toward the worse part, so that we take from God that right to judge which is his. This message alone ought to suffice to correct such boldness: that it is not lawful for us to make this or that unclean, but that this power belongs to God alone.
Readings taken from Day by Day With John Calvin
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