Footsteps #30

James’ speech suggests he was in a position of authority and in fact the leader of the early church (not Peter) c.f. Acts.12:17;21:18; Gal.2:9,12. The main issue for which the council had been convened was satisfactorily resolved. Because salvation is by grace, believing Gentiles were exempted from circumcision when they joined the church. Yet, they should abstain from four things: (1) meat offered in sacrifice to idols in pagan rituals and then served in a temple feast or sold in the market; (2) blood consumption; (3) meat of strangled animals, that is, meat whose blood had not been drained; and (4) sexual immorality in its various forms. We should notice that this list did not include those things that predated Israel e.g. the distinction between clean and unclean meats which Noah understood “Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice,^[a] and take one pair of each of the others.” NLT (Gen.7:2) and the weekly Sabbath from creation and which predated sin, ” So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. ² On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” (Gen.2:1-3). God had immortalised this in the fourth commandment (Exod.20:8-11).

The so-called apostolic decree was neither temporary nor a new code of Christian ethics that excluded everything else related to the OT. In fact, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Acts.15:28), the apostles and elders of the church reproduced the regulations of Lev.17–18 concerning only Israel’s resident aliens. In the context of Leviticus, these prohibitions mean the renunciation of paganism. Any foreigner (and know Gentile believer) who wished to live in Israel had to abdicate and take a stand against those pagan practices to which he or she had grown accustomed (Lev.18:30. This, however, was just the first step. Once in, he or she naturally was expected to do God’s will by obeying those commandments that are universal, pre-Mosaic, and not intrinsically ceremonial. That the decree was not temporary is clear, for example, from Rev.2:14, 20, where the first and the last prohibitions are repeated, implicitly contemplating the other two, as well. In fact, historical evidence shows that the decree was still considered normative by Christians long after the NT period.

Acts 15 should teach us that when disputes arise, we should be able to sit together, listen to each other, and in the spirit of respect and humility work through issues.