In Acts 10-11, Peter is faced with a great challenge. The Holy Spirit tells him to go to some gentiles, who were considered unclean, and to be their guests. He has a choice to stick to his cultural norms, but he goes in obedience and faith. Peter sees that when these people who were once considered “unclean” were saved, they were blessed with the same gifts as he was upon receiving the Holy Spirit. He realizes that these men are not unclean by God's standards, and he takes a stop of faith in reporting this to the church, whom also considered these men to be unclean. Despite his church's criticism, he boldly gave God the glory and proclaimed what God had shown him.
Peter is so confident in God's work through his life, that he almost does not even care about everyone else's criticism. In Psychology, we studied conformity, and how easy it is to change our opinion on something we know is right, simply because everyone else has a different opinion. It's in our nature... it's built into us so much that we don't even notice our conformity... it's pretty much automatic. When it comes to our Christianity, it's so hard to go against the grain and hold a different view in our church or families, let alone be a Christian in our society. Peter's obedience, faith and passion for God made it automatic for him to give God the glory instead of conforming. If we are constantly devoting our life to God, we can turn around our nature of conformity, and put our faith in God's leading, instead of the crowd's.
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