Acts 11

“If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" (v17).  Jewish believers criticized Peter for eating with unclean Gentiles (v3).  So Peter told the surprising story of how God had given the Gentiles the same gifts of faith and the Spirit that He had given the believing Jews, making us all one family (Gal 3:26).

The early church struggled with the natural tendency to love our own “tribe” and fear outsiders.  But when we were outsiders and enemies, Jesus reconciled us to the Father, and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:19).