"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10:15 NIV).

Our standards of whether or not something is pure and acceptable are not always the same as God's.

It is a subtle temptation to measure a person's spirituality by their outward conformity to a certain code of behavior. For example, the Apostle Peter took pride in the fact that he had never eaten anything considered ceremonially unclean (Acts 10:14). He avoided defiling himself by communing with non-Jews (Galatians 2:12). His own sense of religious piety kept him from obedience to Christ's Lordship (Acts 10:13-14). His self-righteousness blinded him to his own sins of spiritual pride and cultural prejudice. He held on to his own religious standards as if they were God's. He was deceived into thinking that the ground for a right standing with God depended upon his conformity to certain religious rules and regulation rather than trusting the merits of the Lord Jesus as the Way, the Truth and The Life (Galatians 2:21, John 14:6). Though an apostle, on more than one occasion Peter has to be rebuked for serving his 'religion' more than serving Christ Jesus as Lord.

In Peter's understanding, the Gentiles (the non-Jewish believers) were less fit spiritually as Christians because they lacked the qualifying distinctives of conformity to the ceremonial law of Moses. Peter's thinking led to divisive behavior that could potentially sabotage the newfound unity of Jews and Gentiles in the body of Christ.

Peter honestly thought he was serving the Lord. Yet, in this context, he was serving his own religious concepts instead. Paul opposed Peter to his face because 'he was clearly in the wrong' (Galatians 2:11).

How much of Christianity has become conformity to our own 'ceremonial laws' rather than allegiance to the Lordship of Christ! It is wrong to judge other believers by our own personally or culturally devised standards of what is 'clean' and 'unclean', 'acceptable' or 'unacceptable'. It is wrong to consider other believers as being more or less spiritual by such externals as the form of their prayers, the style of their worship, whether or not they speak in tongues, wear head coverings, prefer different musical styles, vote for different political candidates, participate in the arts, homeschool their children, or watch a film we happen to disagree with.

It took three visions from heaven, several personal divine reprimands and face to face confrontation with the Apostle Paul, for Peter to 'let go' of his religious judgmentalism. May we 'let go' of ours today.