Acts 10:4 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Are come up for a memorial before God. — The word so used was emphatically sacrificial and liturgical, as, e.g., in Leviticus 2:2; Leviticus 2:9; Leviticus 2:16; Leviticus 5:12; Leviticus 6:15; Sir. 45:16; and elsewhere. The words implied, therefore, that the “prayers and alms” were accepted as a true sacrifice, more acceptable than the blood of bulls and goats. If we ask, in the technical language of a later theology, how they could be accepted when they were offered prior to a clear faith in Christ, and therefore before justification, the answer is that the good works were wrought by the power of God’s grace already working in him. He was believing in the Light that lighteth every man, though as yet he did not identify that Light with its manifestation in Jesus as the Christ (John 1:9). He had the faith which from the beginning of the world has justified — the belief that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).