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NASB | Acts 10:34 ¶ Opening his mouth, Peter said: ¶ "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 10:34 ¶ Opening his mouth, Peter said: "Most certainly I understand now that God is not one to show partiality [to people as though Gentiles were excluded from God's blessing], |
Bible Question: i completely understand that God does not show favoritism, however there is something that i am confused about. if God doesn't show favoritism, why did He have a "chosen" people? why salvation "first for the Jew and then for the Gentile?" just curious. |
Bible Answer: I'll take a stab. God doesn't show favoitism in the traditional sense as you and I understand it. He's the Creator and we are the creation; He's the Potter and we're just the clay. However, I do see and understand what you're saying. God does seem to us to be somewhat chauvenistic as he seems to favor men over women, but that just happens to be God's order of things like His creation of the Sun and the planets going around it. As Paul says in 1 Cor 11:3 Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with long hair dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with no covering on her head dishonors her head–she is just like one of the "shorn women." 6 If a woman has no covering, let her be for now with short hair, but since it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair shorn or shaved, she should grow it again. 7 A man ought not to have long hair since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. and again Paul to Timothy 1 Tim 2:14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. Now don't misunderstand. We men had our part in messing up the good deal we all had in the Garden of Eden. It's just that the Devil knew He could tempt the woman, Eve easier that he could with Adam and he chose the sure thing in his mind. But that illustrates God order in the universe, with us humans it's man then woman. It's a functional thing like the horse before cart, nothing more. Men MUST NOT use this God's order of things to abuse or to our advantage. God developed a relationship with the Jewish nation as a result of the promise He made to Abraham but His main purpose in doing so was to introduce the Savior of the whole world, His Son. It was a natural step to start off Christianity with the converted Jews in Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, it's implied if it hadn't been for the persecution AND the conversion of Saul to Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Jews would have been delighted to have kept Christianity to themselves forever. Thanks be to God that he did use the persecution and dispersed christians out of Jerusalem to spread Christianity throughout the rest of the Gentile world, which includes you and me. Thus we see the various ways mankind messed up the church as we see in all of Paul's letters and the other epistles of the NT. I hope this helps and God bless. --Rowdy |