Kingdom Culture, Part Seven
It was one of those issues that could have ripped the early church in two. From the outside, it appeared that there could be no compromise on it. Either the Gentiles who were coming to faith in Christ needed to become Jewish or their religion would be something different than the religion of the Jewish Christians, who saw Jesus’ work and ministry as the fulfillment of Old Testament promises—promises made to and for Israel.
If it had been business as usual, I have no doubt that someone in power would have picked a side and that would have been the end of the debate (and the end of the church as we know it). But Paul, Barnabas, Peter, and James entered in, knowing that it could not be business as usual. They were all citizens of the kingdom of God, and things must be done according to a higher standard.
Certain Jewish believers from Judea had started teaching that in order for Gentiles to be saved, they had to be circumcised and commit themselves to the law of Moses. In other words, they were proclaiming that the only path to Christ was the path of Judaism. But Peter, Paul, and Barnabas had seen with their own eyes that God required no such journey. The Holy Spirit fell on Gentiles the same way He fell on Jews. God made no distinction.
Acts 15 is all about the Council of Jerusalem, the gathering of apostles and elders that settled the debate. Paul and Barnabas came down from Antioch. Peter was there too. And James the half-brother of Jesus, as the leader of the church in Jerusalem, presided over the council.
Apart from Christ, this could have been any corporate meeting. You know the ones I’m talking about. They promise an open forum and real solutions, but somehow the person with the biggest title inevitably gets their way. Most often, the end result favors those who hold power. But because there was a meeting, they can say things like, “Everyone came together on this,” “We listened to all voices,” and “It was a tough decision, but in the end we did what was best for everyone.”
At the Jerusalem Council, no one pulled rank and lorded it over anyone else.
Paul could have said, “Hey, listen. Jesus appeared to me and commissioned me as the apostle to the Gentiles, so this is really my jurisdiction.”
Peter could have chimed in, “I was the leader of the Twelve. I was with Jesus for His entire earthly ministry, and I can say with confidence He would want things this way.”
James could have ended things before they even got started by saying, “Jesus is my brother. I grew up with Him. And I’m the leader of the mother church of our faith. I must do what’s best for this congregation.”
But that didn’t happen. Titles were set aside, and egos were left at the door. Each person spoke from their experience with the Lord and shared what they had learned. Paul and Barnabas told about the Gentiles they saw come to faith on their first missionary journey. They told about the signs and miracles that God did among the people of foreign lands. Peter told about his experience with the Lord at Joppa, how God brought him to a Gentile named Cornelius in Caesarea Maritima, and how Cornelius and his entire household received the gospel in faith and began speaking in tongues.
Then it was James’ turn. To fully appreciate how he handled the situation, it’s important to remember that there was a strong incentive for him to side with the Jewish believers, the Pharisees who wanted the Gentiles to become Jewish. The church in Jerusalem was largely Jewish, and James’ life would have been a lot easier if he simply gave the loudest members of his congregation what they wanted. Sound familiar?
But James understood that the ways of the kingdom are not the ways of the world. It didn’t matter what would make his life easier. It didn’t matter what direction would be the most expedient. All that mattered was Jesus’ opinion. And Jesus had made His perspective clear through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Taking the experiences of other people at face value can be dangerous, even when the Holy Spirit is involved. As fallible human beings, we sometimes make applications or inferences we shouldn’t. So James looked for a second witness in Scripture. He found one in Amos 9:11–12, which describes the Davidic dynasty being restored and Gentiles seeking after the Lord. God was fulfilling these prophetic words in their day.
James also sought a solution that would bring unity rather than further division. He recognized the believing Pharisees had legitimate concerns. How would Gentiles and Jews live in harmony if they were so very different culturally? He knew Scripture held the answer.
Back in the book of Leviticus, God had provided instructions to Israel for the “foreigner residing among them” (Leviticus 17:8, 10, 12, 13; 18:26). These included prohibitions against eating food sacrificed to idols (17:8–9); blood (17:10, 12); eating the meat of strangled animals (Leviticus 17:13); and sexual immorality (18:26). And so, caring for the consciences of his fellow Jewish Christians, James applied the same rules to Gentile Christians:
“Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” (Acts 15:20)
James didn’t pull this list out of thin air. It came from established practice in Israel’s history and was codified in God’s Word. But he didn’t go so far as to shackle Gentile believers with a new law. These restrictions had nothing to do with salvation. In his letter, James simply said, “You will do well to avoid these things” (v. 29).
Taking a step back, we can see that James—and Peter and Paul and Barnabas—extended grace in every direction. The goal was peace, but not at the expense of truth. They came to a decision using kingdom principles, and no one lorded it over anyone else. In fact, James attributed the outcome of the council to “the Holy Spirit and to us” (v. 28)—to divine and sanctified human wisdom.
That should be the goal, shouldn’t it? To make leadership decisions in such a way that there can be little doubt God was in them. But to do that, we have to first care about what God says in His Word, and that means reading and studying and meditating upon it—and then thinking critically about what we’ve been taught. Only when we make it a habit to bring everything under the authority of Scripture will we begin to live up to the kingdom culture Jesus established.
Next time, we’ll reexamine something so basic, it might just turn everything we think we know about Christian leadership on its head.
Check out my latest books:
The Unlikely Intrusion of Adams Klein (The TimeFall Trilogy, Part 1)
And if you’ve missed any of the previous posts in this series, you can check them out here:
“Who’s the Boss? (Kingdom Culture, Part One“
“The Price of Worldly Power (Kingdom Culture, Part Two)”
“When Your Boss Is a Slave Driver (Kingdom Culture, Part Three)”
“The Choice Before Us (Kingdom Culture, Part Four)”
Pages of Joy // John Greco 
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