Note 1 at Acts 8:14: This was the first time in the experience of the young New Testament church that anyone except a proper Jew had become a believer in Jesus. The Samaritans were Jews who had corrupted their bloodline, and the true worship of God, and were therefore rejected by strict Jews as not being Abraham's seed and heirs to the promises (see note 2 at Jn. 4:4, p. 102).

Therefore, the church at Jerusalem had sent Peter and John to Samaria to check out what was happening there and see if they approved. Peter and John showed their approval by praying for the Samaritans that they would receive the Holy Ghost, and even shared the gospel with other Samaritans on their way back to Jerusalem (v. 25).

Jesus had ministered to the Samaritans before (Jn. 4:4-42) and had made it clear that He was the Savior of all men (see note 2 at Mt. 15:26, p. 251; see note 1 at Jn. 12:23, p. 418). The believers came to accept this concerning the Samaritans, but the same wrong thinking cropped up again when it came to the conversion of a Roman centurion named Cornelius (Acts 10). This doctrinal issue of, "do you have to become a Jew to be saved?" caused a special council of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem to convene to consider this issue (Acts 15). Three books of the New Testament were written (Romans, Galatians, Hebrews) with one of their major themes being that salvation in Jesus comes through grace by faith alone.