In Acts chapter 10, Luke introduces us to a devout man named Cornelius. Both he and his whole family feared God, gave generously to others, and prayed continually. Luke’s introduction of Cornelius tells us much about how Christ manifests himself in the life of a person.
Cornelius is called devout. Devout is a word that shares roots with the word devote. Devote means to apply, assign, or give something entirely toward an end, even at the exclusion of other things. In the United States, for instance, the 911 telephone number is devoted only to emergencies. Cornelius was devoted to God – meaning that God was his highest priority, and all other priorities fell beneath his devotion to God. But this devotion wasn’t something he just mustered up as one musters up courage. As strange as it seems, he and his family’s devotion was the natural product of a faith-borne fear. Luke tells us plainly that they feared God. This idea feels completely out of sync with the modern western understanding of a good and loving God, but the Old Testament teaches us in several places that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10). It also tells us that evil people don’t fear God at all (Psalm 36:1-4). It isn’t that godly people like Cornelius and his family are afraid of God. Rather, it’s that they have a deep and reverential respect for him. They understand that God has an awesome and unfathomable power, along with the ability, authority and right to punish them, to destroy them, or to turn them over to evil powers. They also understand that he is loving, caring, and gentle, and will use that same awesome power not to hurt them, but to right them when they are wrong, and to care for them as a father cares for his children. Evil people, on the other hand, aren’t afraid of his power – though they should be. And they have no respect for his goodness or hatred for evil. Godly people fear disappointing God. Evil people don’t care one way or the other.
This reverential love and respect for God caused Cornelius to be generous with his blessings. He recognized that his powerful and awesome God owned everything – including the blessings God had given him (Psalm 50:1-11). And it also caused him to love his neighbors as he loved himself. The natural consequence of that God-focused reverence was love and generosity.
Finally, Cornelius prayed continually, making certain that in his mind the awesomeness, sovereignty, lovingkindness, and power of God were always being reinforced in his thoughts and meditations so that he could live a daily Christlike life (Psalm 63:6-8, Psalm 1, Romans 12:2). In the same way as Cornelius and his family, whenever we revere God, we become more like Jesus: devout, generous, and enlivened by regular spirit building prayer and meditation. And like Cornelius, we are more prepared to recognize the will and messages of God when we encounter them (Acts 10:30-33).
Comments