Acts 21:15-25 (NIV)
After this, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
Paul and company finally made it to Jerusalem. We don’t know anything about this Mnason other than what is written here. But it does say something positive about him that he would be willing to open his house to such a controversial person as Paul, as well as to the group of people traveling with him.
Paul delivered the gift he had brought to the Church in Jerusalem, as well as giving a verbal report of what God had done among the gentiles. This report was given to James, the present head of the Jerusalem Church, and to the elders gathered in council. The report was received with thanksgiving over what God was doing to expand His kingdom in the lands to the west.
James did, however, have a large concern. The people of Jerusalem, many of them Jews, but many of them who had also become believers in Jesus, were very zealous for the law of Moses and very defensive against anyone they perceived as militating against it.
Rumors had come in that Paul was speaking out against the law, and that he was instructing the Jews who lived in the gentile areas to the west to not circumcise their children. To the Jewish mind, that was tantamount to destroying their racial identity.
The rumors were, of course, untrue. Paul was teaching the gentiles that they didn’t have to be circumcised in order to take advantage of the gospel. And he did teach the Jews that the mere fact of their circumcision did not give them entry into or any special privileges in the kingdom. But he didn’t teach the Jewish Christians to stop circumcising their children, and he roundly supported all the righteous requirements of the law himself.
But the rumors had been believed, so there were many in Jerusalem who were dead set against Paul and his ministry, people both in and out of the Church. And now he was here, so the issue had to be dealt with. What should be done?
James and the rest came up with a plan. There were some Jewish Christians who had taken a Nazirite vow (Numbers 6). At the end of their vow, which was coming soon, a sacrifice had to be made, and their hair, which had been allowed to grow for the duration of the vow, had to be shaved off and burned along with the sacrifice. The council believed that if Paul were to pay the costs of the offerings and participate in the purification ceremony along with the men, it would demonstrate to everyone that he was upholding and affirming the righteous requirements of the law, just as he had been faithful in holding the gentile believes to the standards laid out for them earlier by the council (Acts 15:23-29).
Father, it is sad to realized that many, both in and out of the Church, are so quick to believe negative things about those who are working in the Church and to reach a verdict without any concrete evidence. And, as in Paul’s case, those same people often refuse to accept any evidence contrary to the rumors and what they have come to believe, even when all the I’s are dotted, and all the T’s are crossed very publicly. Help us to keep our eyes focused on You and You alone, to keep our own plates clean, and to not focus so hard on inspecting the plates of those alongside us. Amen.
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