Acts 15 -- Godly Guidance For Church Disagreements

“The progress of the gospel has often been hindered by people with closed minds who stand in front of open doors and block the way for others,” my commentary said.

 

About 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the church faced a problem.  Would the Gentile believers have to become Jews first, or not?  It took a church council to find God’s truth in the matter.

 

Peter reminded them that God had sent him to the Gentiles; that Cornelius’ family had been saved by hearing and believing, not by obeying the law of Moses; and God had also validated that by giving them the Holy Spirit.  As far as the law went, “The law was given to the Jewish nation to protect them from the evils of the Gentile world and to prepare them to bring the Messiah into the world.  The law cannot purify the sinner’s heart, impart the gift of the Holy Spirit, or give eternal life … God did that through His Son.”

 

The only response from those gathered was silence.  Paul and Barnabas then spoke up, reminding everyone of what God was doing at present among the Gentiles.  Then James, the brother of Jesus, “called those saved Gentiles ‘a people for God’s own name.’”  This had in the past been exclusively Jewish territory, but people couldn’t deny that Gentiles were being called out to believe!

 

The council finally compromised with a request for obedience to two commands and two personal concessions.  The commands involved avoiding idolatry and immorality – sins that were very prevalent among the Gentiles.  The concessions involved not eating meat from strangled animals and not eating blood, for a strangled animal did not have the blood properly drained from it, and God had given the prohibition against eating blood long before Moses. 

 

These compromises would prevent a lot of hard feelings yet not affect the truth of the Gospel.  Jews and Gentiles were finding ways to lovingly compromise in order to produce loving unity that would help the world see Christ through the church.

 

Father, help our church to be more interested in having the world see our loving unity than ever deciding who will win a particular battle, for everyone loses when we let that happen.  Lead us to compromise when the Gospel itself is still faithfully preached.  Help us to ask, “How will our decisions affect the united witness of the church to the lost?” as my commentary described.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford