Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 10:34

"And Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:" — Acts 10:34 (ASV)

The sermon is prefaced by the words, “Opening his mouth, Peter said” (lit. tr.). This is one way to introduce a weighty utterance (cf. Matthew 5:2; 13:35; Acts 8:35); and in Luke’s eyes, what Peter was about to say was indeed momentous in sweeping away centuries of racial prejudice. It begins by Peter’s statement that God does not show racial “favoritism” (cf. Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; James 2:1; 1 Peter 1:17) “but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” While some consciousness of this may be implicit in Israel’s history and at times may have been expressed by her prophets (cf. Amos 9:7; Micah 6:8), it was only by means of a revelational clarification of what had earlier been considered highly enigmatic (a “mystery”; cf. Ephesians 3:4–6) that Peter came to appreciate the racial challenge of the Gospel.