The clean and the unclean

Acts 10:14-15, 28   But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. {15}  And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

 

The unclean thing:

      Living a separated life follows that we abstain from close association with the “unclean”. If we would live that separation we must distinguish what is the unclean thing Paul talks about in 2 Cor 6:17. The word “unclean” means not cleansed in a ceremonial sense; unclean in thought and morality. So being separate from the unclean thing would mean no close association with unsaved or immoral individuals. According to the first definition an unclean person would be someone who is not a Christian in New Testament standards. The Jews considered all Gentiles to be unclean and it was unlawful for a Jew to be too close to them (Acts 10:27-28; 11:1-2). After Gentiles were saved they were not considered to be unclean to God (Acts 15:8-9).

 

Unclean food:

      The Jews had strict dietary laws and some food was unclean to them Lev 11 & Deut 14 and were forbidden to eat them. We know today that some of these foods have potential to hurt the human body, but are not forbidden to eat (1 Tim 4:4-5). Originally man ate only fruits, nuts and herbs (Gen 1:29) and after the flood he was not restricted to vegetarian diet (Gen 9:3-4). The restriction of certain food came as a part of the Jews’ separated life unto God. Paul explains a little about this in Ro 14:14 – “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”  Even the council at Jerusalem when giving instructions to the newly converted Gentiles did not emphasize dietary restrictions, only in the area of blood and idols (Acts 15:20). Paul addresses some of this in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 8 & 10).

 

Avoiding compromise:

      When Paul wrote the letters to the various churches, his intent was to instruct, encourage and correct the believers in their new found faith and life as Christians. They had never known anything about Christ and God – other than what they knew about God from the Jews’ religion and way of life. One of the things that Paul taught was Christian liberty from the legalism of the Jewish teachings – circumcision, holy days, etc. (Gal 5:6; Ro 4:9-10; Gal 4:9-11; Col 2:16-17); but there were other problems that he had to correct (2 Cor 11:28). The church at Corinth seemed to be the most problematic church Paul had and his letters to them covered numerous and serious matters of Christian life and practice. The Corinthians seemed to gravitate back to the old life (1 Cor 6:9-10, 15); they also desired to live wild like the heathen with no thought of their association with the wickedness of the heathen as well as a life that was according to fleshly desires.(1 Cor 10:20-21).

      Paul wanted to present the Christians from all churches to Christ as a chaste virgin, pure and holy without spot or wrinkle, so he instructed them and us as well, to be separate from uncleanness for no unclean person shall inherit heaven (Eph 5:5). This uncleanness would be in our conduct as well as thought life. It is not enough to be clean on the outside, but we must be clean on the inside as well.