Devotion:
Read Acts 15:12-15a, 22-23a, 30-35.
The stories in Acts are the stories of a church dealing with persecution from the outside and threats from within. Today’s passage is about a threat from within. Believers, who also held on to the law of Moses, insisted that all converts had to be circumcised and follow the other ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic law in order to receive salvation. These additional burdens on Gentile believers led to a dispute. Paul and Barnabas entered into this conflict and returned to Jerusalem for wisdom and direction at a meeting of the church council. Peter and the other apostles and elders were there. Even James, the brother of Jesus, was there. Paul and Barnabas shared from their travels. The Spirit of God began to move hearts. A church that could have been segregated along lines of ethnicity, Jews and Gentiles, became a unified body again.
This story tells us something about the people who wanted strict requirements for everyone: they were Pharisees and legalistic people. Faced with the unknown and the uncomfortable, the Pharisee disciples wanted to control Gentile believers by making them follow the Pharisees’ laws. Acts 15 shows the radical nature of the gospel and the community that results. Gentile and Jewish believers are unified around the grace of Jesus alone. What a leader Paul was in this situation.
Personal Worship Option:
Dear God, forgive us when we divide the body and separate from other believers. Draw us together by the grace of Jesus and the movement of the Spirit. Amen.
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