A while back I wrote about the diversity in the church in the first century. I was reading Acts 21 yesterday and was struck again by this story. There’s an idea out there that the early church was fairly Jewish in nature, but that it outgrew that characteristic.
Passages like Acts 21 show that idea to be untrue. Here we are years after Pentecost, years after the “Jerusalem council” of Acts 15, yet James describes the Jerusalem church by saying, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.” (Acts 21:20) Then he says to Paul: “Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.” (Acts 21:24)
James not only thinks that many in Jerusalem are living according to the Law, but he feels that Paul is doing so as well. And Paul never corrects him. Instead, Paul agrees to participate in a Jewish vow to show his dedication to the Law.
In the past, I asked one brother on this blog what freedom Paul was talking about in Galatians 5:1 [“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)] That brother said it was Judaism. That makes no sense, given that the Galatians weren’t Jews before they became Christians. And this incident in Acts 21 happened years after the letter to the Galatians was written.
There’s no doubt about it. The early church was much more tolerant of diversity than the modern church often is. It’s an area we need to grow in.
My understanding is that the freedom Paul was speaking about in Galatians 5.1 is freedom from the legalism that faith in Jesus Christ plus ______ (circumcision in the Galatians case) as the basis of salvation and acceptance in the community of Christ. But none of that meant that Jewish Christians had to abandon living the forms of the law (hence, Acts 21) nor did it mean that all Christians, Jewish or Gentile, were free to live a lawless life and it seems like Paul goes on address what a lawful life lived in Christ looks like in Galatians 5-6…and that seems to be a life that allows for much diversity in form but unity in function, which is the function of love.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Rex,
I agree. The freedom in Christ is freedom from legalistic, works-based salvation, be it Judaism or be it earn-your-way-to-heaven Christianity.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Tim,
Was it the case that *no Galatian Christian* was a Jewish-Christian? Jew-Gentile relations was a problem well before Acts 21. And Paul was really the chief worker to deal with this problem. Further, Paul’s custom was to enter a town and preach both to Jew’s and to God-fearing Greeks. Even if some or many of those to whom Galatians was written were of the latter category, it still seems the Jews could’ve had expectations of them which would’ve constituted being burdened “again” by a yoke of slavery. i guess i don’t see how the points you raise necessarily discount your friend’s interpretation of Galatians 5.
And really, even if Galatians 5 is about Judaism, that doesn’t falsify your point about unity versus uniformity, does it? i’m not sure why we should see these two issues as bearing some dependency relation.
–guy
I think you have to look at even the last chapter of Acts when Paul is house bound in Rome that he was still trying to affect the Jews and their thoughts on following Christ and giving up the Jewish law. That present day Jew was not convinced and that combining the circumcised with the Gentiles was in the best interest of the Jews.
Prosyltising was what the Jews of the day wanted. Even Christian Jews thought the Gentiles needed to be part of the Jewish religion. This was the yoke Paul speaks about.
Abandon the law and recognize grace. Grace is what was given to mankind on the cross at Calvary. Now in my way of thinking it was given to us ALL or none of us AT ALL. God wasn’t selective in his purpose, was he?
Just last week the lead evangelist at my church mentioned in his sermon that one the greatest strengths of our church is our diversity, and of the the greatest challenges is our diversity. It’s easy to idealize and difficult to live. So far Central Jersey is managing and doing well.
Guy,
No, it’s admittedly possible that some were Christians, though the argument about them being circumcised implies that the majority weren’t. The thrust of his arguments is to Gentiles, not to Jews (see for example 4:8-9).
If Christ died to set us free from Judaism, why were all of those Christians in Acts 21 still following Judaism? Why did Paul not rebuke them? Why did he join them? No, as I said to Rex, freedom in Christ is freedom from legalistic, works-based salvation, be it earn-your-way-to-heaven Judaism or be it earn-your-way-to-heaven Christianity.
Grace and peace,
Tim
Thank you, thank you, thank you Brother Tim for being the FIRST that I have seen to present this text that we have ignored for too long. Thank you!
Grace and genuine peace through Christ Jesus THE LORD, Clayton.
PS “There are several points I would like to address but Jo Ann just said: “Are you coming or NOT?”
Tim,
i thought people were freed from obligation to the Law, not that they were forbidden from observing Jewish Customs. Those two are not the same.
i believe the Gentile Christians were instructed to observe Jewish customs for the reason stated in Acts 15:19-21. It was about outreach to other Jews. Jews got it in their heads that Christianity was *opposed* to Judaism and expected people to blaspheme or disrespect the Law of Moses. This seems to be a common charge against them in Acts. Jesus was even sensitive to this misunderstanding of His teachings (Matthew 5:17f). For that reason they needed to adhere to certain standards to make that clear. Further, in terms of the Jewish Christians, many of these customs were well-established in their consciences. They couldn’t conscientious bring themselves to eat something “unclean” etc. i concede that Acts 21 is generally quite puzzling to me. But as it stands i take it that Paul could submit himself to certain Jewish customs for the sake of unity. But what Peter did (Gal 2) was not in the interest of unity at all.
i still think much of our modern faith-salvation vs. work-salvation talk is the invention of 16th century Catholic/Protestant relations and don’t accurately depict circumstances in the first century.
–guy
Guy, note the wording of James in Acts 21. These people were zealous for the Law. I’m not saying that they were basing their salvation on that, but they lived as people under the Law.
As for Paul easily submitting to these customs, there is a bit of controversy, you know, as to whether he intended to offer the sacrifices that accompanied this vow. There’s no way of knowing, of course, but Paul was seeking to show that he still lived in obedience to the Law.
I agree with you last paragraph to a point. I have known people who were very works-based in their thinking, people for whom grace meant little to nothing. There was a book that I read last year that talked about salvation being all about doing enough. I’ve heard others claim that Paul’s idea of grace contradicts Jesus’ teachings.
Grace and peace,
Tim
Thanks Clayton.
Adam, that’s an astute statement. Diversity is indeed a blessing and a challenge.
Heres what I am pondering. I’m thinking “IF” we could flush all our previous held teachings for a day or two and read the NT in it’s entirety with an open and sincere mind and heart asking God to PLEASE Father help me see truth, that we would come away seeing more clearly. We may still not agree totally but at least we would be more in tune with God’s Holy Spirit.
I have been critical of Preachers for being the cause of our divisiveness. Yes Elders too.
Yes all denominations as well. Been there done that as an elder. When I did what I suggested above, I saw TEXT that I had never mindfully read and I mean never. But when testing myself against the word my eyes sacred me as to what I saw.
I saw UNITY overwhelming division. I saw what we were doing as being divisive.
I finally saw division as what it is when we reject immature followers for not totally agreeing with “US.” I saw US saying we followed the pattern of Paul and then failing miserably to do that as in Acts 21.
For the FIRST TIME all scripture finally FIT without extensive explanations that were a stretch in some cases.
Paul clearly says The Law was not sinful. Well I had always been told it was. Had I read the text for myself I believe I would have seen that, that the Law is Good and not sinful. He says something to the effect had it not been for the Law we would not know that covetousness is sin.
The Judisers freed from the Law were freed to be circumcised for as Paul explains circumcision is nothing. That could be said for the whole Law. It no longer condemns and it does not justify any longer, if it ever did but apparently many thought it did.
Temple worship is just like circumcision. It counts for nothing. It is NOTHING more than at best a lingering tradition no longer required of God.
This is where I stumble BUT I understand it in my own mind and heart but having little education I struggle for the proper word meaning to express it clearly as you are about to see. :)
There are no more physical requirements as far as physical function is concerned even similar to what the Jewish Law “required”
We made them all up for God because God failed to state CLEARLY as to what they were.
let His people know how to proceed physically from day to day.
OOPS. This new mouse is killing me. I was not ready to post that! I’ll try to finish tonight and continue my thoughts and as soon as I am able and I will post the remainder at that time.
CONTINUED:
We assumed that pattering their freely lived daily acts would make US what they were. In actuality it made us the opposite of what they were. They, freed from physical law and US, right back under it. Under it in the sense that we require one another to practice OUR conclusions ( Law ) or one is not in the Body of Christ.
Paul said:
Galatians 5
Christ Has Set Us Free
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Now why would Paul say:
“if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you”
THEN HE TURNS RIGHT AROUND AND PLAINLY SAYS:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
It has to be IF one seeks justification by PHYSICAL WORKS.
If one does seek to be justified by works: “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
That is some heavy stuff to reverse course NOW after all this time and start trying to convince members that we have been wrong all these years, but convince them we must!
Romans 14 is the Key and it is Romans 14 that spells it all out as far as I am concerned:
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.
We are NOT required nor were the Jews “required” any longer, to assemble UNDER LAW on any particular day, for any particular reason based on actual teachings from an inspired Apostle.
Where we compounded the confusion is by requiring an assembled worship when none is ever required from God. Even our examples we made Law do not refer to worship.
Going back to ACTUAL teaching, Paul makes it clear in Romans 12 concerning those worshipers that John said: “God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship in “spirit and truth”
Romans 12
A Living Sacrifice
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your (((“spiritual worship.” ))) 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is the worship in spirit and truth Paul patterned daily in Acts and any where else we pick a proof text to pattern physically.
Spiritual worship occurs in our “renewed minds” and Hearts which is exactly where we are encouraged to make a melody, in our hearts.
No one can see my spiritual worship and I cannot see anyone else’s spiritual worship.
I worship in spirit at odd and various times as most of us do.
Haven’t you ever sang a song in your mind silently, prayed in your mind, pondered the scriptures in your renewed mind? Well isn’t that worship in spirit? Why weren’t we required to use the instrument? Because the requirement for worship is spiritual NOT physical requirements any longer, no more physical restraints . . do not touch
Colossians 2:20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22( referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
I believe the TEACHINGS are there and for some reason we simply did not SEE!
One last thing to ponder concerning spiritual worship and God’s Spirit that reighns in our hearts:
1 Corinthians 2
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Grace and peace Clay
HClay said that the Law, “no longer condemns.” I’m not sure I would go that far. The purpose of the Law was “to increase the trespass” (Rom 5:20, 7:9). The whole purpose of the Law was that sin may be made known (Rom 7:7). Now I will say that the Law does not have dominion over me (Rom 6:14) since I am in Christ and under grace, but what is true is that “through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20). I know I am a sinner because of the Law; and I agree that because I live in Christ, I am justified (something the Law could never do). But I don’t think that rids the Law of its power to condemn (for it does outside of Christ; outside of grace).
I think Rex and Tim are right in the very first and second comment. Christ + anything or salvation is legalism. I believe that what Paul was arguing against in Galatians is what Luther was fighting against in regards to the Roman Catholic Church. It was Christ+plus Law (or for Luther, Christ plus whatever else Rome said you had to do; hence His “justification by faith alone”).
But this is where I may part from some. It’s not even our obedience that justifies us (for, that would be yet another Christ+plus equation; and I would even equate that with Galatians and Rome). Instead, I have been saved by grace alone through faith alone, and my obedience (walking in the light) is proof of my final justification in Christ alone; it does not earn me my final justification.
“It is finished.”
Grace to you –
Let me quickly add that I do not negate obedience! I just don’t think that is where our final justification is based; for it is based in Christ alone. And if we do not obey, or as John says in his first letter, if we walk in darkness while claiming to be in the light, we are simply proving ourselves to be liars (thus, not truly justified).
I didn’t want anyone to think that I completely negate obedience. I just think it proves our already final justification instead of earns or gains us our final justification.
Grace to you –
Paul was lead by the Spirit and not by his flesh under a Law that controlled him physically with the fear of condemnation. That was the Old Way.
Romans 7:6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Think Spirit and not Flesh. Think the unseen and no longer the seen. Think inside, the heart, and the renewed mind, under the New Covenant and not the outside of man, not physical nor of his flesh. But of his heart spiritual mind, in the spiritual realm where God dwells.
Think Love, “faith hope and love,” the intangibles, the things not seen nor understood nor measured by other men that dwell and think in the physical realm. They glory in their religious flesh and exalt their flesh and physical days and their physical rituals that causes them to be puffed up and praise one another for what is seen and honored by other men’s glory of their own flesh. Think Spirit controlled by God.
Law controls men’s flesh and he focuses on the physical.
Spirit controls hearts and thoughts of the mind and we die to our flesh both good and bad.
Romans 8
Life in the Spirit
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Jr.,
I am just curious what you make of Paul’s understanding of faith that includes obedience (“obedience of faith”; Rom 1.5; 16.26)? It seems like we need to find a way of speaking about obedient saving faith in a way that does not lapse into work-based salvation because Paul certainly was able to speak of such faith without allowing it to become a work-based salvation.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Rex, I’m with you here, and here is how I would present it (and how I believe Paul and others do):
Is “obedience of faith” (or, to the faith) any different than 1 John’s “walking in the light”? Certainly faith in and of itself is obedience, and then living a life that puts that on display “for the sake of His name among the nations” is certainly a part of our calling. What this shows is that our conversion is more than saying a prayer or being dipped, but it is in a life that shows transformation, obedience, sanctification, etc.. No easy believism.
I think what saves this from not lapsing into works-based salvation is making clear that the good works themselves (or other forms of obedience) are not, in the end, what actually saves us. Instead, it is proof of our claims.
In other words, Christ alone saves us and justifies us – and if we claim to walk in Him, our lives will prove out this completed salvation and justification (“There is now therefore no condemnation…”). I think we need to be clear that our obedience is not our ground of salvation but they are proof of it.
As I read the text, all who have faith will be obedient, will persevere, and will be saved because Jesus saved. As Rom 1:5 says, even our obedience is a gift of grace (“we have received grace…to bring about the obedience of faith”). Even our obedience is a gift from God, “for, it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Christ is the root, obedience is a fruit. That needs to be made clear because once we make obedience the root we bear the dying fruit of legalism and works-based-salvation.
Grace to you –
Tim,
i’d love it if you covered this more thoroughly! i really believe that sorting out the details and implications of this Jew/Gentile problem is key to understanding a great deal of the NT documents. i’d love to do it myself, but i’ve had to shift the time i used to spend blogging onto schoolwork. i just have brief moments to comment on others’ now.
Anyway, i’m not sure what you mean to suggest by pointing out that those people were zealous for the law. Just because people had, in fact, been freed from obligation to Judaism, doesn’t necessarily mean that took themselves as free to do so nor does it mean that they were obligated not to retain their Jewishness. i take it that this was, in fact, part of the problem. Unbelieving Jews saw Christianity as subversive and and oppositional to Moses and the God of Israel, so Christians had to be careful to give no creedance to that claim. But as a result, many Jewish Christians were never really challenged to see themselves as permitted to give up their Jewishness. Because they had become believers, i don’t see how that necessarily implies they would’ve given up their zealousness for the law. And again, i take that to be part of what was at issue–why the majority of Paul’s work seems to be working on Jew/Gentile relations and making theological sense of it.
Again, as you and i have both granted, Acts 21 is not “easy” by any serious interpreter’s standard. There are some who claim Paul just plain messed up. But i do want to say i’m not sure we are forced to understand that Paul was seeking to show he was living in obedience to the law–i think James put it to him that way. But Paul could’ve done what he did for other reasons.
i would like to point out one important distinction though. i think there’s a clear difference between saying that the NT does not teach a works-based salvation and saying that works-based-salvation as we understand it is precisely what Paul had in mind when he wrote the passages we traditionally use to debate that question. Even if none of the “faith-works” passages we’re accustomed to using are about what we’ve traditionally thought they were about, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the NT therefore teaches or condones a works-based salvation.
–guy
Jr. Said: Christ is the root, obedience is a fruit. That needs to be made clear because once we make obedience the root we bear the dying fruit of legalism and works-based-salvation.
I believe Galatians 5 speaks to this in a marvelous way:
I have (3) questions:
1. What was the unity and diversity that existed in the church in Jerusalem.
2. What was the religious life of the church in Jerusalem like?
3. Why didn’t the Jerusalem church maintain it’s power?
Thanks in advance for your prompt response!
Hi Kristin,
Here’s my attempt at answering your questions:
(1) It would be hard to say that there was no diversity in the Jerusalem church, for there certainly was (see Acts 6), but the focus of this post is on the diversity between the Jerusalem and churches in other cities.
(2) We can’t say much beyond what the New Testament says. The church started out strong and united, went through times of testing, grew stronger through persecution. Through all of it, it remained firmly Jewish in nature.
(3) I think the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a telling blow for Jerusalem as a city and as a center of Christian faith. The church in general fled the city before the Roman siege, and many Christians ended up going elsewhere. That being said, it was still considered to be one of the five “centers” of Christian faith up until its conquest by the Moslems in the 7th Century A.D.
Maybe some others will jump in with better info.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Jr.,
Thanks for your reply. I am curious how this fits in with your understanding of sanctification. While sanctification is the work of God in us, it seems that a lack of obedience would impede this as the “obedience of faith” is necessary in order for Paul to offer the Gentiles up as a priestly offering that is sanctified by the Spirit (Rom 15.15-16). And with that in scope, it seems difficult to separate the “obedience of faith” from the fullness of salvation since it would seem a bit of a stretch to speak of salvation without sanctification. Also, the conversation about how to speak of salvation and obedience must some how give account that the New Testament does speak of our works/deeds being accounted for in judgment (cf. 2 Cor 5.10; Rev 22.12).
Anyways…I’m not trying to be critical. I’m just thinking out loud. Thanks for the conversation.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Rex, I’m not sure I fully understand your first part but will respond as though I do. I see sanctification as an ongoing process in those who are justified. But sanctification is not the ground for justification or salvation; Christ is. Sanctification is a result of the work of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not the cause of His accepting a person, it is the result of His accepting a person.
As for those texts; I believe they refer to rewards for believers and punishment for the wicked. As Jesus said, “you will know them by their fruit.” In the Revelation text we have the word μισθος which refers to a reward or payment. I believe the 2 Corinthian text you mention speaks to this same type of judgment. The “obedience of faith” will be measured out and rewarded for those who believe. I think Jesus speaks to this in the parable of the Minas in Luke 19. Rewards for those who believe according to what they did; yet for those not Christ, as He said, “as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and a slaughter them before me.’” (Luke 19:27).
Being reconciled to God through Christ is a done deal for those with genuine faith; and our lives will prove out this genuine faith here in this age, and in the judgment to come. But thankfully, our sins have already been judged as they were placed upon Jesus, and therefore there is no condemnation for those in Him. Judgment of works for rewards for those who believe, sure; but not for sin. In Him we are (today!) blameless.
Grace to you –
Jr