Section 11
the church life is concerned. In order to have the Body life, we must receive the believers accord ing to God's receiving of them in a general way, not according to our doctrinal concepts in a par ticular way.
Romans covers two doctrinal concepts held by the religious, Jewish believers: eating and keep ing of days. Those who hold these concepts insist that certain foods are holy and that others are un clean, that certain days are holy and that others are common. They base their dietary regulations on Leviticus 11. In their eyes, the Gentiles are little more than unclean beasts that eat every thing. Acts 10 shows that even Peter, the first apostle, was religious with respect to eating. His religious nature forced God to give him the same revelation three times regarding what is sancti fied and what is common (Acts 10:9-16). When the Lord told Peter to "kill, and eat," Peter said, "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean" (Acts 10:13-14). The Lord answered Peter saying, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (Acts 10:15). We see by this that Peter, like so many others, clung to doctrinal concepts because he was religious. When such people argue for their concepts, they think that they are fighting for the