Day 190

DAY 190

AGREEMENT & DISAGREEMENT

Job 36 & 37 and Acts 15:22-41

Tomorrow we will return to Job, Elihu continues to proclaim his message, a singular and somewhat overconfident message about God. My comments today relate to all of chapter 15 of Acts of the Apostles. Chapter 15 of Acts seems to all be about agreement and disagreement.

In this Chapter we read about the first Council of the Church – the Council of Jerusalem. The council is being held to sort out how non-Jewish followers of Jesus should live. Should they be circumcised? Should they follow the Jewish dietary laws? There are even more questions and so Paul and Barnabas set out to meet with the leaders in Jerusalem. A parallel account of this moment, from Paul’s perspective, is in Galatians. Galatians gives you a little more detail.

The issue is “What determines your relationship with God, is it your relationship with Jesus, or is it your relationship with Jesus plus extra requirements?” Paul and Barnabas’ perspective is that it is Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen, period! Others have come into those town and villages and basically been pleased that people have accepted Jesus as the Christ, but have added requirements.

This is an important situation because the question is not about dietary laws, but rather what is at the core of following Jesus. To address this situation a council is held. People get together and share their views and then the leaders take council together. Notice the flow in the reading. The situation is described and then there is “much debate.” Peter then weighs in and reminds them that “in the early days” he has shared the Gospel with the Gentiles. Then they listen more to the experiences of Paul and Barnabas with James making the final proposal, and his proposal seemed good to all the apostles and elders.

What I am struck by in chapter 15 is that the first 75% of the chapter is all about how a successful Church Council is held. They are listening to each other, drawing on the Scriptures and what they each have experienced. They reach a conclusion, write it down in a letter, and then send the letter along with a few people to go along with Paul and Barnabas to encourage the churches outside of Jerusalem.

Towards the end of the chapter there are just a few short sentences that describe a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. It might catch you off guard. Barnabas is called the encourager. Flip back through your Bible and scan how many “tight spots” these two have been in, only to see God intervene. Yet they split apart because they disagree over whether John-Mark should come with them.

What this event points out to me is that we should not expect everybody at church to agree about everything...that is simply unrealistic. What we should expect, and pray for, is that everybody agrees about the “main thing,” about Jesus. I don’t believe as Paul went his way and Barnabas his, that they preached different Gospels…certainly not. The issue between them was about the method (with or without John-Mark) but the message was the same. Do we desire peace and complete unity – certainly, but we should not be surprised when we have different ideas about how. The key is to remember the core, the rock, the cornerstone – Jesus the Christ crucified and risen – He holds it all together.