Truly Grasping God’s Character

Sometimes we can know things without really understanding them. We might say that we know something, and we might really think that we do know it, but our knowledge is surface-level and incomplete. We might know something is true, but we don’t realize how true it really is. Someone might tell a visiting friend that the best Mexican food joint in town is a certain restaurant because they’ve heard that repeatedly, but when they go and eat there they realize “Wow! This really is great Mexican!” We might say that prayer works, but then we see God move in a mighty way to very specifically answer a prayer request and suddenly it hits us that God really does answer prayer. 

This is also the case when it comes to our knowledge of God. Sometimes we know truth about God but don’t really get it. The words may have registered in our mind but the reality hasn’t gripped our hearts, at least not really. Too often we know the truth like a high school student knows the answers to a math test. We have the facts memorized but what we know hasn’t really altered us as a person. That’s fine for math, but that is a problem in theology.

I share all this because the other day I was reading in Acts 10 where Peter makes the statement “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism.” This struck me as an odd phrase, because Peter should have known that God doesn’t show favoritism. I think this simple sentence is worth meditating on. This simple sentence teaches us a lot about God’s character, but it also teaches us how to think about God’s character.

The Greek words for “understand” and “favoritism” are worth digging into a little bit, because there’s a lot going on under the hood here. The word used here for “show favoritism” is a unique word that borrows from the Old Testament. In Leviticus 19:15 judges are told not to show favoritism to the poor, or “lift the face” as the Hebrew literally says. To “lift the face” means to show favor, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (cf Malachi 1:9). But when special favor is given to some and not others, as in a court setting, then this becomes wrong (cf Malachi 2:9). When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, the translators coined a new word “face-lifting” that we only find in Jewish and Christian writings. 

Importantly, God Himself describes Himself as one who does not “lift the face,” or show favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17). This is important, because this is something that sets the God of Israel apart from the capricious and shallow Greek gods. Whereas the Greek gods were slimy and could be bought off, tricked, or manipulated, the God of the Bible is a God of justice, truth, and fairness. He doesn’t play favorites. He doesn’t lift the face.

So how did Peter not know this? Well, he did. He likely knew it well. Peter had been brought up in Galilee, probably attending the synagogue and hearing the law read on a regular basis. This is why he clarifies that he now truly understands this reality. In fact, the word that Peter uses here (katalambano) is unique. It’s not one of the two normal Greek words for knowing something (ginosko or oida). Instead, it’s a word that can mean to grab onto (Philippians 3:12-13), to find (Acts 25:25), to seize (Mark 9:18), or to overtake (John 12:35). A good translation here that captures this idea of grabbing on to something in the context of understanding might be “grasp.” Peter is saying, “I now truly grasp that God doesn’t show favoritism.” At the risk of overinterpreting a single word choice, Peter seems to be saying, “I’ve kind of known that God doesn’t show favoritism, but now I really get it.”

What led to such an epiphany? Well, God had given Peter a vision warning him not to call unclean what God called clean. At that very moment, Gentiles showed up asking Peter if he would come and visit a centurion. Normally, a Jew would not have been willing to visit a Gentile. The possibilities for ways they may have become ceremonially unclean were legion. Better to avoid the encounter entirely. The Gentiles’ complete disregard for the Old Testament purity laws basically made them unclean! Except it didn’t; not in God’s eyes. 

Peter went with the men because God gave him the vision and then the Spirit explicitly told him to go. While he was there the entire household waited eagerly for Peter to share whatever it was that he had to share. Then it clicked for Peter. As he looked into the eager eyes of eternal souls in need of the good news of Jesus, Peter got it. God doesn’t show favoritism, not even to His own chosen people! Peter had always known that God doesn’t show favoritism, but he had not realized how deeply that truth went. Peter always knew that was true about God, but he didn’t realize how true. He had known it, but hadn’t really grasped it.

I think in many ways the journey that Peter takes in this account is the story of all of us. Many of us know a lot of things about God. If you grew up going to church, or have been discipled, or even if you have gone to seminary, there is likely a lot about God that you know but haven’t really grasped. All throughout our life, we will continue to learn more and more about the character of our God. While that can mean learning fancy new terms like hypostatic union or omnisapience, normally the new things we learn aren’t so technical. Normally our learning about God means that we come to a deeper realization of the truths we have known for a long time. Not that what we thought was true wasn’t true, but rather that it was more true than we even realized. 

So as you study God’s Word, ask that God would open your eyes. Don’t think that because you’ve read a passage before, there’s nothing new for you there. I doubt that Peter ever read Deuteronomy 10:17 the same way again. As we continue on our spiritual walk, our goal should be to grasp what Scripture is saying about God. We should ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes so that we understand, truly understand, what God is like. We should desire to keep learning, keep growing, and above all, to keep deepening in the knowledge of our Creator.

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash