BEWARE OF CONTENDING WITH PETER MENTALITY

When some of the believers in Jerusalem heard that peter went into the house of Cornelius, they started to contend with him, asking him why he went into the house of a gentile. These were born-again believers who had just received the Holy Spirit but they could not let go of their old believes and practices that told them not to go into the house of a gentile.
In fact despite the fact that they accepted and believed in Jesus and all he taught especially about loving everybody as yourself, they still held on to their circumcision based on the law of Moses and would not accept any uncircumcised person as fellow believer. They were believers, they had all the qualities it took to be a believer, but deep down on the inside, they were still their old selves who would not accept outsiders that were not Jews
In life and business, a lot of times, we go to a great length to change ourselves. We attend seminars, read the right books, and go for courses in order to improve our skills and knowledge. We could even go as far as teaching others the right things that will change and improve their lives. However, when it really comes to applying what we have learnt and been taught, we instinctively but unconsciously fall back to our old method of doing things. For example, we may read books that teach us about the importance of personal finance but when we spend, we do not follow a budget or keep proper records of our financial transaction, we may know that it is important to our health to forgive but we hold a grudge against someone that offended us long ago.
So, because we know the right things to do, we most times are not conscious of the fact that we are not actually doing the right thing. So like the early Jewish Christians who believed all that Jesus taught but still contended with peter for entering the house of a gentile, we may know all the right process but never realize that we are still practicing the old rules and habits that have been keeping us down in poverty and frustration.
Thus we must consciously put up red flags or seek for ways to regularly check whatever we are doing to see if it’s the new principle we learnt that we are practicing or if we are learning the new but still practicing the old.
It is not the right principles you know that will improve your life but the right principles you know and make conscious effort to put into practice.