Dear Faith Family,
Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble
those of the Gentiles who turn to God
but should write to them to
abstain from the things polluted by idols,
and from sexual immorality,
and from what has been strangled,
and from blood. (Acts 15:19-20)
"But" is a mood changer. This common conjunction has the power to turn our attention in a bad situation to see something more: "My car wouldn't start this morning, but Sarah got me to and from work." But, the power goes the other way, too: "I got that promotion I wanted, but I'll have to travel more than expected." Whether to lift up or drag down, "but" wields a power that supersedes its tiny stature.
Perhaps the "but" in James' judgment has dampened the mood for many who've worked their way through the stories Acts. After all, we've witnessed the movement from Jesus' ascension in Jeuresualm towards the earth's end. This expansion was utterly inclusive, distinguished in allegiance and affection to Jesus and nothing else. James even affirms the movement, saying, "...we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God," with all those traditions and regulations that make him Jewish. That's good news for us gentiles! We don't have to become physically and ritually Jewish to be caught up in God's Kingdom, but, James adds a "but"!
For several millennia, James' but has been used as permission to build all sorts of boundaries around life in Christ. It is Christ's work and affection for and allegiance to Him that makes true and forever life our reality, we contend, but...don't ________, abstain from ________. The blanks have been filled in differently throughout each generation on both the "traditional" and "progressive" sides. It wouldn't take too much thinking to come up with a few you've heard, and perhaps even ascribe.
While living captured by Jesus, being ever drawn into true life with Him will undoubtedly require us to forgo particular things, to hear James' exhortation as
a stereotypical list of regulations added to the free in Jesus would be to miss the context and heart of Acts 15. Dylan did a great job on Sunday helping us see that Acts 15 is not the "mature" or "traditional" requiring the "new" and "different" to add something to live in the faith, but rather, make room for the entire family of faith!
"What is the goal of James's words?
They seem to be aimed at removing impediments for communion."
(Wille James Jennings)
As Dylan pointed out, the "don'ts" that follow James' but, is a singular encouragement to be fully aligned with Christ in a way that makes room, opens the table, to communion with all the sisters and brothers of Jesus. James judges that "communion and joining" in Jesus with others, a life given over in allegiance, awe, and affection to Him with others, really is the end of faith as we know it. That is why when the Gentile church heard James' judgment and but, "rejoiced because of its encouragement" (Acts 15:31).
Life together in Jesus, orbiting around Jesus together as we're drawn into full and forever life in following Jesus together is what it means to be "the church," the gathered to Jesus.
And we know that for those who love God
all things work together for the good,
for those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that He might be the first born
among many brothers {and sisters}.
(Romans 8:28-29)
Love you, faith family! God bless.