Tuesday
Tuesday
The Jerusalem Council
Some … [believing] Pharisees … said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
Acts 15:5–6
It had been assumed that gentile converts would be absorbed into Israel by circumcision. But now something quite new was happening, something that disturbed and even alarmed many. Converts were being welcomed into fellowship by baptism without circumcision. We must be clear about the point that was at issue. A pressure group we call either “Judaizers” or “the circumcision party” arrived in Antioch claiming authorization by the apostles and insisting that without circumcision there was no salvation. In other words, faith in Jesus was not enough; converts must add to their faith circumcision. They must let Moses complete what Jesus had begun and let the law supplement the gospel. Paul was absolutely outraged by this contradiction of the gospel. Were gentile believers a sect of Judaism or authentic members of a multiracial family? So a council was convened in Jerusalem, with James the Lord’s brother in the chair. First, the apostle Peter reminded the Council how through his ministry Cornelius and his family had been converted and received the Spirit, making no distinction. Next, the Council listened with great respect to Paul and Barnabas, who gave an account of their missionary journey. Finally, James quoted from the prophet Amos. It was the combination of prophetic witness and apostolic experience that convinced him. His conclusion was that they should not make it difficult for Gentiles who were turning to God, but instead ask them to respect Jewish consciences by abstaining from four practices.
There is debate as to whether the four practices are moral or cultural. If moral they were idolatry, murder and immorality, omitting the fourth (the meat of strangled animals) as the Western text does. But these are such grave sins that it would not be necessary for a special decree to ban them. In this case, the practices banned were cultural—eating idol meats, drinking blood, eating non-kosher food, and marrying within the prohibited degrees (see Leviticus 17 and 18). Three of these relate to diet and could inhibit table fellowship between Jews and Gentiles. We may say, then, that the Jerusalem Council secured a double victory—a victory of truth in confirming the gospel of grace, and a victory of love in preserving the fellowship by sensitive concessions to Jewish scruples.
For further reading: Acts 15:19–29