What does Acts 10:36 mean?

Peter is making a point that we don't often think about. "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34), but accepts anyone who fears Him from any nation (Acts 10:35) for the purpose of peace through Jesus. We cannot experience true peace if we judge others on artificial, worldly standards. Peter, a Jewish leader of the church, cannot have God's peace if he doesn't accept that God wants Gentiles, too. We cannot really experience the peace Jesus died for if we don't accept that God also loves people of different ethnicities, skin colors, nationalities, political leanings, denominations, and genders. We know this on some level, but we also forget, like Peter will do (Galatians 2:11–14) and need to be reminded. Outside the non-negotiable essentials of the faith, our brothers and sisters in Christ don't have to live, look, or even believe exactly as we do.

The peace that Jesus' sacrifice offers is founded on our relationship with God. We have peace with God when our sins are forgiven and God sees Christ's righteousness in us. Jesus died "while we were enemies" of God (Romans 5:10). Our reconciliation with God reconciles us to other believers—a fact we should strive to live out. It also gives us the mission to join in God's work of reconciling the world to Him by sharing Jesus' story (2 Corinthians 5:18–21).

Hundreds of years before Peter preached the gospel to a room full of Gentiles, Daniel prophesied about the "son of man," saying, "And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). The "word" is both the gospel and the logos—Jesus, Himself (John 1:1).