We left the discussion of whether or not Gentile believers needed to be circumcised (men!) and keep the law of Moses with Peter’s recognition that even those who had tried to keep all those laws were saved, not by law-keeping but by grace:

No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15.11, NIV)

So what did they decide? And, more importantly, what were their criteria?

James, the brother of Jesus, a late convert (see 1 Corinthians 15.3 – 8), is the spokesperson, and he points out that it’s no secret that Gentiles would be part of the family:

The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: “After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things.” (Acts 15.15 – 17, NIV, quoting Amos 9.11, 12)

That’s the first criterion. Gentiles are in – we can’t debate about that. (Good news for me and most of my readers!) Given that we will be welcoming Gentiles – for us, people not raised in church – how will we welcome them? With a list of rules? The criterion they came up with in Acts 15 may shock some of us:

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. (Acts 15.19, NIV)

Say again? Not make it difficult? No circumcision? No complicated dietary laws? For us, no dress code? As I wrote a couple of years ago, a well-known Bible teacher was lamenting what another church was doing to accommodate hippies in Southern California:

In 1967 a bunch of Jesus freak people in the beach areas of Southern California go to Calvary Chapel and for the first time that I know of in history, the church lets the very defined subculture dictate what it will be. Out go the ties, out go the hymns, out go all the normal and formal things…it’s a false form of Christianity.

I’m sure some of the Jewish believers in Acts 15 were saying the same thing. I quoted Augustine a few months ago: God’s grace always seems to startle the religious.“

We started this section yesterday observing how the gospel was expanding. What effect did this decision have on the spread of the gospel? We have the answer in the next chapter:

As [Paul and Silas] traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. (Acts 16.4, 5, NIV)

I can hear it now: “Too much accommodation and you have a church that’s a mile wide and an inch deep.” That’s not what happened in Acts: “strengthened in the faith” AND “grew daily in numbers.”

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1.12 – 14, NIV)