GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ACTS 15:19-21
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should stop making it difficult for those of the Gentiles who turn to God. 20 Instead, we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. 21 For Moses has been preached in every city from ancient times, and he is read in the synagogues on every sabbath.
If this passage did not include verse 21, we would throw up our hands and wonder how James could have been taken in by the circumcision group. For even though he does not mention circumcision, he seems to add four new laws as requirements for the Gentiles!
But look closely at what James says and why he says it. Each of the four commands came from God in the time of the Patriarchs, before the law was given to Moses. Each dealt with something that was especially repulsive to Jews. Each would help to set the Gentile converts apart from unbelievers.
First, he wants the Gentiles to avoid food and other things “polluted by idols.” Idolatry was rampant in every Gentile community all around the world from ancient times (Genesis 35:2-4). It would be several years yet before Paul would even venture to tell mature Christians (or Christians mature in their own eyes) that meat sacrificed to an idol is not really forbidden to God’s people as long as the Christian knows that (1) the idol is nothing, and (2) anything received with thanks from God is to be seen as a gift (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). The exception Paul makes to this is if the act of eating might tempt a weaker brother or sister in Christ to do something against their conscience. In that case, it should still be avoided for their sake (1 Cor. 8:10-13).
Second, James commands them to avoid sexual immorality. In Greek and Roman cities, pagan temples often served as brothels. Going to worship Venus or Aphrodite meant going to have sex with a priestess of those goddesses. God’s will is that sex is to be a delight enjoyed within marriage alone. The Christian can perhaps see a parallel between this solitary marital union between wife and husband alone and the solitary divine union that brings the Church to God through Christ alone. Throughout the Bible, God equates idolatry (unfaithfulness to God) with adultery (unfaithfulness to one’s spouse). Sexual perversions of all kinds, from the violent, threatening homosexuality of Sodom (Genesis 19:5-9) to the gentle, seductive whisper of the prostitutes of Judea (Proverbs 6:24-29), sex outside of God’s plan for marriage is sinful and it corrupts everyone connected with it. Because sex is such an intimate part of human life, those who are caught in the snare of sexual perversions become openly defiant toward God. Their sin becomes like a cauterized wound, “seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2), so that they are blind to its dangers, and create new sins alongside, like forbidding people (such as clergy or nuns) to marry (1 Timothy 4:3a).
Third and fourth, James commands the Gentiles to abstain from the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood (that is, blood apart from cooked animal flesh). This was a command given to Noah: “You must not eat meat that still has its lifeblood in it” (Genesis 9:4). God’s explanation there is that blood is life, and when man sheds the blood of a man, his blood will be demanded (Genesis 9:6). The blood of an animal was to be used for the purpose of foreshadowing the atoning blood of Christ. Animals’ blood was to be poured out on the altar just as Christ’s blood would be shed on the altar of the cross (2 Chronicles 29:24; Hebrews 9:13-14). The consumption of animals’ blood in various ways was still very much a part of pagan life, and this command would help the Gentile Christians show their separation from pagan ways and their devotion to Christ.
Once a Gentile learned about God and about the fulfillment of the law of Moses in Christ, these other ways of showing their faith would not be a burden. They would provide a means for a Gentile Christian to confess his or her faith openly, in public. We still want to avoid idolatry and sexual immorality. Those are part of the moral law, the Ten Commandments. We feel differently about the way we prepare our food because it has ceased to be a part of pagan rituals. Jesus’ words about clean and unclean foods are clear to us today: “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’” (Mark 7:15). So we are more cautious about the things that come out of us: our thoughts, words, and actions. These are still ways through which we show our faith.
We must always be careful not to impose rules or traditions on anyone for the sake of making satisfaction for sins or to merit forgiveness. The glory of Christ is that our worthiness and merit comes through him alone. Otherwise there would be a constant temptation to add more and more traditions to observe, and this would only end up with no one being certain of their salvation. Trust in Christ, and know that you have a place with him forever in heaven.
I am Jesus’ little lamb;
Ever glad at heart I am,
For my shepherd gently guides me,
Knows my needs and well provides me,
Loves me every day the same,
Even calls me by my name. (CW 432:1)
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Acts 15:19-21 Stop making it difficult