Acts 15 – 16

Verse 15:9 is Peter’s conclusion to the need for new believers to be circumcised:

In cleansing their hearts by faith, God has made no distinction between them and us.

One of the problems with reading the Old Testament without reading the New Testament fully is we tend to get hung up on the Law. Suddenly something that breaks us from the Law is requiring us to perform by the Law. I see this most in churches when it comes to the tithe, we no longer stone people for infractions but still require the tithe. The key Peter needs to show people that legalism is not required and just live by the Holy Spirit and love. The only part of the “law” that we really need is the Ten Commandments, with them and Jesus nothing else is needed. Technically, if you love God and love others as yourself, that covers the law per Jesus himself.

Peter is just trying to protect the church from the legalistic mumbo jumbo that hurt the Jewish people. The Ten Commandments came from God and the Law was because of the questions from the people. It was initially to help clarify and became a legalistic mess for the leaders. This is what Jesus came to stop and what Peter is trying to stop in the church. If we get into most churches there are “legalistic” underpinnings, like no drinking of any alcohol, which crept into the government with “Blue Laws” that restricted the sale of booze on Sundays.

Verse 20 has four keys that I question:

We should instead write a letter, instructing them to abstain from four things: first, things associated with idol worship; second, sexual immorality; third, food killed by strangling; and fourth, blood. 

The first two I get, the third I don’t really understand where the fourth I kind of understand. It looks to me like they are trying to move from the law and let some of the food laws creep back in. Believe me I think the food laws are important, but should not be doctrine but rather a guide for healthy living. It’s not a sin to eat porky!! So why did Peter have 3 and 4 here?

Verse 16:19 shows one of the problems with acting on the Holy Spirit:

But when her owners realized she would be worthless now as a fortune-teller, they grabbed Paul and Silas, dragged them into the open market area, and presented them to the authorities.

Paul’s first miracle was to cast a demon out of a fortune teller, whose master got upset. Paul followed God and it got him beat and jailed. From there another miracle happened that literally shook the earth and freed them. This is a great story and should be looked at on many levels but the one I want to look at is the fortune teller. This is a benign person today that many go to for fun, you see them around. But we must realize, evil is associated with this when they are real. They call on demons to get personal info on you and use it to gain your trust, from there logic predicts the future and you get sucked away from God. That IS the problem with this act.