Galatians 2:1-5 (NIV)
Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. [This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
Paul’s trip to Jerusalem for clarification and reassurance came about become some Judaizers were causing havoc in Antioch, telling the gentile believers there that they weren’t really saved, because they couldn’t be saved unless they became Jews first and were circumcised (Acts 15:1). This disturbed the Christians, making them wonder if they really were saved after all, despite Paul’s protestations and reassurances.
The decision was made to send Paul and Barnabas and a few others (including Titus) to Jerusalem to ask the specific question of the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, including Jesus’ original disciples (Acts 15:2). Paul indicates here that he was genuinely concerned that he had been wrong about the salvation of the gentiles and had possibly misled some of them into believing that they were saved when they were not.
Paul’s meeting with the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem (not with the entire Church there, which was tens of thousands) is captured in Acts 15:4-35. The debate was vigorous and passionate, and at times heated. But the last word was had by Peter, who testified to the real salvation and filling with the Holy Spirit of Cornelius and his household many years earlier (Acts 10). Despite being uncircumcised gentiles, God showed that He had accepted them by filling them with the Holy Spirit and purifying their hearts by faith before they had even been baptized, let along circumcised!
The determination of this “Jerusalem Council” was that salvation really was by grace through faith, not by observing all the fine points of the Jewish law. Thus, the gentiles (including Titus who was present for the council) did not have to be circumcised to be saved. The council wrote a letter to the gentile believers to that effect, laying out just four main points of the Jewish law that they felt deserved special emphasis (Acts 15:23-29):
- They should not eat food sacrificed to idols. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 8), even though idols aren’t really gods, and the meat sacrificed to those idols was just meat, many of the gentiles who had previously worshiped those idols and had eaten the meat as a form of devotion to them could be in danger of being dragged back into idolatry if they started eating that meat again.
- They should not eat or drink blood. Eating and drinking blood were often parts of pagan rituals, intended to impart to the eater or drinker the strength or courage of the animal.
- They should not eat the meat of strangled animals. God required that any animals that His people consumed were to have the blood drained out of them, because the life of the animals was in the blood. Some pagans strangled their animals to preserve the blood in the meat as a kind of fortification of the meat, so that its “life force” would be imparted to those who ate it.
- They should avoid all kinds of sexual immorality. This was a strong temptation in they hyper-sexualized society of the empire. Cult prostitutes were readily available, and fornication and adultery were accepted as norms. But God’s people are to be pure and holy, not conforming to the culture, but to God’s standards, including in their sexual relations.
There were, of course, many other sinful actions and attitudes that should be avoided by the Christians, such as not bearing false witness, not murdering, not coveting their neighbor’s possessions and so forth (not to mention loving God with all of themselves and their neighbors as themselves, the greatest and second greatest commandments as identified by Jesus Himself). But the leaders felt that, since the Christians used the Old Testament Scriptures as their Scriptures, and since many of them worshiped at the synagogues, they would clearly and easily understand that those requirements applied to them as well, not as Jews, but as God’s holy people.
Father, this points out how easily we can get wrapped around the axle, even if our intentions are good. We can allow our particular view to become the main thing, and even allow it to become impervious to reason, to other Scriptures, and to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lord, You have given us all we need to know in order to live as Your holy people. You have clearly spelled it out in both the Old and the New Testaments. Help us to receive Your guidance every day as to how to apply this to ourselves as Your people. Amen.