Acts 15:1-21 A Decisive Council
The Council at Jerusalem
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoeni′cia and Samar′ia, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
12 And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brethren, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written,
16 ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up,
17 that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My Name,
18 says the Lord, Who has made these things known from of old.’ [Amos 9:11-12]
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. 21 For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every sabbath in the synagogues.”
The Jerusalem council marks a pivotal moment in the life of the Christian Church. By making the bold and controversial decision that Gentile converts need not follow the Jewish Law, the council powerfully stepped away from being a minor Jewish sect and opened the Church to the whole world. At the same time, this decision also insured that those who disagreed with this direction would trouble the church for decades to come.
The Church was faced with a new set of experiences that challenged received tradition. However, as James pointed out in his interpretation of Amos, allowing the Gentiles to bypass the rules of the Law was not abandoning the Tradition but recognizing that it was being fulfilled. This was all about discernment of God’s will in the present.
The Church decided to expand the mission by removing the unnecessary stumbling blocks of small “t” traditions. But look at what they were calling small “t” tradition: circumcision. This was by no means an inconsequential custom, but had been the cornerstone of Jewish identity. The distinguishing mark. The early Church’s boldness is a breathtaking challenge to us today as we seek to bring the message of Orthodox Christianity to our own world.
This new direction was difficult for those most conservative elements wedded to the exact following of the tradition they thought they were sworn to uphold. But despite the difficulties these members experienced, the Church as a whole decided to transcend their narrow interpretation in order to bring the universal Gospel to a wider world.
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Saint John Chrysostom’s commentary on Acts 15 is especially insightful about how the apostles handled the potentially explosive situation, while insisting that faith and not law is at the heart of the Church’s life.
Everywhere Peter puts the Gentiles upon a thorough equality. “And put no difference between us and them, having purified their hearts by faith” (15:9). From faith alone, he says, they obtained the same gifts. This is also meant as a lesson to those objectors; this is able to teach even them that faith only is needed, not works nor circumcision. For indeed they say all this not only by way of defense for the Gentiles, but to teach the Jewish believers also to abandon the Law. However, at present this is not said. “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples?” (15:10). What is the meaning of means, “Tempt ye God?” As if He had no power to save by faith. Consequently, this bringing in of the Law proceeds from a lack of faith. Then he shows that they themselves had no benefit from the Law, and he turns the whole stress of his speech against the Law, not against them, and so cuts short any accusation against them: “which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved, even as they” (15;11). How full of power are these words!
Despite the arrogance of the opponents, says Saint John, the apostles present their counter arguments in gentle, reasonable and respectful tones, and not in a high-handed authoritarian way. The apostles rest their argument not in words, but in “demonstration by facts, by the Spirit.” The leadership of the apostles is here a picture of calm and good order.
What great effrontery of the Pharisees, that even after faith they set up the Law, and will not obey the Apostles. But see these, how mildly they speak, and not in the tone of authority: such words are amiable, and more apt to fix themselves in the mind. Observe, it is nowhere a display of words, but demonstration by facts, by the Spirit. And yet, though they have such proofs, they still speak gently. And observe they do not come accusing those at Antioch, but “declaring all things that God had done with them:” (15:4) but again these men lay hold upon the occasion to press their own case, “but there rose up,” etc. (15:1.) Such were the pains they took in their love of power: and it was not with the knowledge of the Apostles that they blamed Paul and Barnabas. But still the Apostles brought forward none of these charges: but when they have proved the matter, only then did the Apostles write in stronger terms.
For gentleness is everywhere a great good: gentleness, I say, not stupid indifference; gentleness, not adulation: for between these there is a vast difference. Nothing ruffled Paul, nothing discomposed Peter. When you have convincing proofs, why lose your temper, to render these of no effect? For it is impossible for one who is out of temper ever to persuade.
There was no arrogance in the Church. After Peter, Paul speak, and none silences him: James waits patiently; he doesn’t jump up to get the next word). Great was the orderliness of the proceedings. No word speaks John here, no word the other Apostles, but held their peace, for James was invested with the chief rule, and they think this no hardship. So clean was their soul from love of glory. “And after that they had held their peace, James answered,” etc. (15:3) Peter indeed spoke more strongly, but James here more mildly: for thus it behooves one in high authority, to leave what is unpleasant for others to say, while he himself appears in the milder part.
(from Saint John Chrysostom, On Acts: Homilies 32-33)
Update
I was in Eastern Pennsylvania this past weekend for the Sunday of Orthodoxy, first at the Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity Church in Stroudsburg (with Father Nicholas Solak), and then at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre (with His Grace, Bishop Mark, Father Timothy Cremeens and clergy of the deanery.) My wife and I also had the opportunity to visit with Father Paul Lazor, my old teacher from Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, in his retirement in Tobyhanna in the Pocono mountains. Father Eric Tosi was in Atlanta for meetings about preparations for the All-American Council in July.