Discussion Questions:

1. What is the main point of the story? See Acts 11:17 - 18.

The Law: You are what you eat. God broke the law barrier.
2. What is the purpose of the Jewish food laws? See Leviticus 11:45.

3. What are some implications for a Jew to give up his culture of eating clean foods?

• The moral law is the universal law summarized in the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20.
• The civil law is the moral law applied to specific people, time, society, and government, the nation of Israel.
• The ceremonial law is the moral law applied symbolically; ceremonial laws were symbolic laws related to sacrifices, feasts, ritual purity, and food laws.

4. What does it mean that ceremonial laws were symbolic? Did washing and sacrifice take away sin? If so, what kinds of sins? See Numbers 15:28 - 31, Hebrews 9:7.

5. What actually defiles a person? See Mark 7:18 - 19.

Gospel: You are clean by what God ate. God broke the sin barrier.

6. Why did God choose the Israelites? See Deuteronomy 7:6-8.

7. If the ceremonial laws did not actually cleanse and forgive sins, how could we be cleansed? See Acts 10:15; Acts 15:8 - 9.

Community: We eat to love and not love to eat. God broke the cultural barrier for fellowship and unity.

8. What do we mean by we are to eat to love and not love to eat? See Romans 14:17.

9. What are some cultural prejudices that we may hold that would acts as barriers to gospel life and community?

10. What are some ways we could promote community and gospel life?