Paul and
Barnabas received a great welcome from the church in Jerusalem. Many years had
passed since they had been there and there was much to tell, especially about
what God had done in Antioch and in their first missionary journey. If all
church reunions were like this, well…
But since it
was an assembly with a decision to make, it was inevitable that an alternative
view would surface. It is surprising and sad to see where this view came from.
How was it possible that some believers still retained a connection to the
party of the Pharisees, a group that were not well-disposed to the progress of
the gospel? Perhaps it was the size of the number of converts that caused this allegiance
to be overlooked! Or maybe those in charge assumed that this allegiance would
peter out with the passing of time! Whatever the reason for tolerating it, trouble
came eventually.
After much
debate, Peter reminded the gathering of how they had previously realised that
he had been given a special commission to bring the gospel to Gentiles. They
had also discovered through his ministry at that time that God blessed Gentile
converts with the same privileges that Jewish converts had received, and that
no mention had been made of requiring conformity to the ceremonial law. One
would have assumed that spiritual logic would have led them straight to the
right conclusion, that they would continue on the path that God had guided them
on to in his previous providence.
Peter also
points out that consideration of this matter of whether or not Gentile converts
should be circumcised was not merely an interesting theological discussion about
a disputed point. Instead those who were suggesting that the ceremonial law
should be practised were putting God to the test! They were in great danger of
displeasing him, and in any gathering for discussion it is his opinion that
counts.
After
Barnabas and Paul had spoken (one assumes that this is the order in which they
spoke) about their work among the Gentiles, James who seems to have the
position of decision maker gave his opinion. He drew their attention to a
prophecy in Amos which described the ingathering of the Gentiles into the
recovered kingdom of David’s royal family. That prophecy was now being
fulfilled, so there was no need for them to make up their own rules about what
the Gentiles should be doing.
The point
that James stresses is that we should have biblical support for whatever
decision we make at any time about the kingdom of Jesus. James had more to say,
which we will think about tomorrow. In the meantime we can think about the
necessity of biblical support for our decisions.
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