6 May 2021

Acts 7-21, NRSV 

Following the disagreement about whether Gentile converts to Christianity should first become Jews, a council of the apostles and elders of the Church was convened in Jerusalem. The outcome of this meeting would determine the whole future of the Church. Peter was the first to speak and he made it clear that God was already saving those whom some thought could not be saved and that the Holy Spirit had been given to Gentiles as well as to Jews. Peter reasoned that it would be unfair to impose on the Gentiles a law which many Jews and their ancestors struggled to live by. Peter’s address was so powerful that the entire assembly was silenced and prepared to listen to Paul and Barnabas as they described the signs and wonders they had witnessed among the “pagans”. It fell to James, the leader of the Church in Jerusalem, to conclude the meeting. James recalled the words of the prophets who had foreseen that God would raise up a people from amongst the pagans. He ruled that only a few requirements should be made of those Gentiles turning to God. These requirements would enable Gentile converts not to act in a way that would upset the Jewish community or undermine the witness of the Church. These requirements would also mean that all members of the Church could live in fellowship. Some have described the recommendations made by James as a “rule of love” rather than a “rule of law.”