God-fearer

You've probably heard that term.

It wasn't necessarily some sort of formal definition, God-fearer.

It didn't have a checklist that, you know, if you meet all the qualifications, you're a God-fearer.

But the phenomenon of it itself is well-attested.

across ancient sources.

That's amazing that Peter did that because it shows that his Jewish scruples were being overcome.

And he goes in there and preaches the gospel to a household of God-fearers.

They're not Jews yet, but they're very, very respectful of Judaism and probably on the Sabbath are listening in the outer courts to what's going on inside.

22, the whole discussion underlines Paul's tender concern for the weak.

He should recognize that God is even willing to save Gentile people.

And so he's saying, look, every nation, even the Gentiles, if you fear God, which is what Cornelius did, he was a God-fearer.

And he was actually also someone who gave tithes.

He gave tithes or alms of what he had.

Dig a little deeper and you see an amazing description of how God works.

Acts 10, verse 9 tells us of two men who were household servants of a Roman centurion named Cornelius, who was in the category of what the Jews called God-fearers.

These were Gentiles, that is non-Jews, who loved the God of Israel and were sympathetic to and supportive of the Jewish faith.

Yet they stopped short of becoming fully Jewish in lifestyle and in circumcision.

I would have said, oh, he believes as a God but he's not living as a Christian.

And I think certainly by the time we were 21, early 20s, I would have definitively said he's not a Christian, God-fearer but not a Christian.

Yeah, and it's interesting because I now talk to a lot of people in church ministry and I'm sure, well, I wonder if you have in the same way, who speak to me about kind of, oh, my children, they grew up in youth group and they tell me about them and And it's tragic, like I say this with no, obviously with no pleasure, but to say they are clinging on to a profession that their teenager made at like 12, you know.

So it could be that their child is now 27, hasn't been at church in 14 years, is living with their third partner, children to, you know, five different women, all the things, and they go, oh, but… They did call themselves a Christian earlier and I think they did have a moment with God and I do them no favours if I pretend I agree with them because I don't because I've lived my own life and I know that that's not true.

Proselytes were Gentiles who had converted fully and been circumcised.

God-fearers were Gentiles who came to the synagogue without converting.

They attended, gave money and kept some of the practice.

Not converts and not outsiders either.

It cost nothing, took an afternoon, and left no mark which a man would have to explain at the baths.

It also gave a woman the same single act as a man, where the old road has asked one thing of her and two of him.

The God-fearers became the touchstone.

They were already half inside the synagogue, and the refugees offered them the rest of the way in without the surgery.

If you were to pray that, would it be true? Do you truly desire God and his presence above all else? If you could ask one thing from the Lord, would it be this? I think sometimes we run away from questions like these because we don't know what to do if the answer is no.

But I can assure you that if it is, you are far from the first Christian, far from the first God-fearer to struggle with desiring God.

And if this is a point of shame for you, if this is a point where you feel guilt, where you feel less than super holy Christians who always seem to desire God much more than you do, if that's how you feel, I want you to know that that stems from lies of the enemy.

You see, when we use scripture as a mirror to examine our hearts, and when we observe areas of concern, it's Satan who weaponizes that for shame to keep us stuck there, but God who uses it to call us into growth, repentance, and renewal.