“We Should not make it difficult…”
The “Council at Jerusalem”
Early controversies in the church focused on the “outsider” vs “insider” tensions between Jews and Gentiles. Racial and religious divides ran deep. John MacArthur describes the tension…
Some Jews had said the Gentiles were created by God to be the fuel for the fires of hell. This is a very narrow view. If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl a funeral was held. The Gentiles in return looked on Jews as slave material, persecuted, oppressed, and killed them. In fact the Gentiles commonly called Jews enemies of the human race. You can get a little bit of imagination of this kind of contempt about the Gentile to the Jew when you hear Pilate saying, almost with dripping sarcasm, “I surely am not a Jew, am I?” The disdain in his voice, and you can hear the same sting of Gentile hate in the voices of the owners of the slave girl, you know, who was used to make them money by sorceries. And when Paul and Silas came along and cast out the demon in Philippi, you can remember the words of those leaders. They said, “These men, being Jews, do just exceedingly trouble our city.” There was a great hatred among the Gentiles for the Jews, a deep disdain, as if they didn’t belong even in the framework of humanity.
The gospel reaching the nations brought tension to the church. Some argued that Gentiles needed to adopt Jewish customs. They wanted them to keep kosher and get circumcised. Others were persuaded that belief in Jesus was sufficient for full acceptance into the church.
Acts 15 documents what happened at the “Council at Jerusalem.” Peter, James (the brother of Jesus), Paul, Barnabas, and others met to discuss what conditions, if any, should be pushed onto Gentile converts. The decision was:
It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” - Acts 15:19-20
Today, this seems like a quaint debate, distanced from our modern setting, but I think it still has important implications. Our world is still torn between people groups. Black vs White. Gay vs Straight. Democrat vs Republican. Capitalist vs Socialist. Everyone is welcome in Christ’s church. We are, however, still commanded to set aside idolatry and sexual immorality.
In the midst of culture wars and pride month, this is an important reminder. Yes, we welcome everyone. We must refuse to add anything to the message of the cross. At the same time, we are still to call people to holiness. Allowing people to remain in their sin, especially in the self-destructive sins of sexual immorality, is the opposite of loving.
With You;
Pastor Tim
