October 23 Daily Devotional

Acts 15

“Certain men which came down from Judea to Antioch taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” This caused no small dissension and disputation in the congregation. After a while it was determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other men, should go up to Jerusalem to hear the opinion of the apostles and elders about the matter. When they came to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas first gave a report of their missionary journey. After that a council of the apostles and elders was held, and the question about the ceremonial law came up for discussion. Peter rose up and said, “Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us: and put no difference between us and them … Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples … But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

“Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying … Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this will I return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down … that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God; but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”

A letter was handed to these delegates for the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia, in which was written, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” When they came to Antioch, Judas and Silas delivered the letter to the multitude that gathered. “Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.”