Scripture Daily

Context No. 4143 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 15:18-23: in context

18“All of God’s works are known to him from eternity. 19Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, 20but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. 21For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” 22Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers. 23They wrote these things by their hand: “The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.

The early church faced a critical question: should Gentile believers be required to keep the whole law of Moses to be truly Christian? The Jerusalem Council, guided by the apostles and elders, gives a gracious answer: we should not trouble those Gentiles who turn to God, but ask only that they abstain from a few things that would offend and defile.

The heavy yoke of the law was not to be laid on the new believers; the gospel of grace was not to be burdened with human requirements. There is a significant principle here. The instinct to add rules and requirements to the gospel, to make people conform to our own traditions and standards before we accept them, is strong. But the Council resisted it, choosing not to trouble the Gentiles with burdens God did not require. We can be tempted to load new believers with our own expectations, cultural preferences, and extra requirements, as if these were part of the gospel. The Council's wisdom was to keep the way to God unburdened.

Do I welcome those who turn to God on the basis of grace, resisting the temptation to burden them with my own expectations and extra requirements, keeping the way to God unburdened as the Jerusalem Council did?

Sources