Now we have this curious statement – “So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium.” The first time I read this passage in Acts after I became a Christian I imagined the significance of it was a parallel to the nearest thing I knew from my experience. Having played tennis on clay courts I know the clay sticks to the bottom of your shoe. So every now and then throughout a match you have to knock one shoe against another or use your tennis racquet to knock the sticky clay off the soul of your shoe. Otherwise you will be carrying around a heap of clay on the bottom of your shoe which will make your feet heavier and make it harder to run. In doing so I was using my own understanding to interpret the Bible. Don’t ever use your own understanding to interpret the Bible. That will lead you to a wrong conclusion. You need to learn to interpret the Bible through the cultural perspective from which it was written and from the time perspective in which it was written.
