Day 336 – Paul – Church Council at Jerusalem

• Back in Antioch, trouble was brewing among the recent converts to Christianity. You can see the issue in the first few verses of Acts 15. What was the disagreement about?
• The matter was important enough to hold a council meeting with the church leaders back in Jerusalem. When Peter stood up, what arguments did he make in favour of ending the requirement men had to be circumcised?
• When you hear the words “yoke around the neck” (Acts 15:10), you might think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-29. Can you remember what a “yoke” was, in this situation?
• The council decided, in verse 19, that there should now no longer any physical requirements such as circumcision in order to be saved. In verse 20, certain rules and regulations were – however – encouraged to be kept. Look at the list. Why do you think these particular things were still encouraged? You may find the words of 1 Corinthians 8 helpful in this regard.
• What was the response to the decision made by the council, both in Jerusalem and back in Antioch?
• Paul’s letter to the Galatians, probably written about 6-7 years after the council meeting in Jerusalem, continued the theme of accepting and welcoming Gentile converts. In Galatians 2:1-10, he reminded them of the agreements of the meeting, as some people were still teaching that they needed to become “Jewish” to be saved.
• In verses 11-14, Paul rebuked Peter. Peter had previously been eating with Gentiles (and had done so since his meeting with Cornelius on day 329), but now had stopped, fearing the reaction of the Jews who were still demanding Jewish rules such as circumcision. Paul was angered because his actions were like false teaching. It’s interesting to see how Paul publicly rebuked Peter. Notice, too, the reference to Titus earlier in the chapter, a man who had never been circumcised.
• Galatians 2:15-21 contain wonderful gospel truths. What is the basic message? Work through the verses carefully, thinking about Paul’s argument. Verse 16 is worth highlighting, as is the reminder in verse 21 that making anything more important that Jesus is foolish. Doing so serves only to make a mockery of His work on the cross.

Living 2,000 years after Jesus came, we have the luxury of being able to think over the result of thousands of years of debate of every topic under the sun regarding Christian theology.

If you think that current hot topics in the national Christian debate are new, then I can assure you, they’re probably not (except for debates centred on new scientific abilities, perhaps). Back in 48AD (ish) there were many, many questions that people wanted to consider, and much of it centred around whether – or how – to move away from Jewish practises that had become ingrained into society for thousands of years. Just imagine the variety of opinions, even without Facebook and Twitter to publish them!

At this time, more than any perhaps, there was a need for good teaching, which is why the early apostles (and Paul in particular in this instance) were so important. He would have brought wisdom and authority to the debating table, and their input to those debates is still felt nowadays with teaching, such as on the topic of circumcision, which we now take for granted.