A Key Decision

In many new companies or organizations or even churches there are key decisions, important decisions that set the course for the success of the business. If a different outcome had been reached, the entire enterprise would have gone in a different direction. We see this in Acts 15. The gospel of Jesus had been taken to the non-Jewish world and many non-Jewish people, called Gentiles, were receiving Jesus as Savior. There was an element of Jesus followers who were calling for these new Gentile believers to be asked to be circumcised and to be taught to follow the law of Moses. Now, just from a practical sense you can imagine how the idea of circumcision would be received by the new Gentile male converts!!!!

Anyway, a big church meeting was held in Jerusalem to discuss this issue and this is recorded for us in Acts 15.   The disciples rightly decide that the Gentiles do not have to be circumcised or follow the law in order to be saved. God had revealed Himself to the non-Jewish world in the same way He had the Jewish world. They understood now that all men were equal in the eyes of God and needed salvation the same way, through Jesus and through Him alone. This was a key decision for the church. It paved the way for the spread of the gospel in a way that would not foster prejudice or a class system in Christianity.

Unfortunately, the kind of thinking that led to the need for this meeting is still alive in the hearts of some today. It is human nature to desire to segregate and separate based on race and economics and other factors. But the gospel brings people together. It is a unifying truth. Everyone needs to receive Jesus. I hope that when you walk down the street you don’t view people according to their race or the way they are dressed. I hope you see them as sinners, just like you, and I hope you have a desire to pray for them and when possible, to show the love of Jesus and to share the gospel of Jesus. That’s a key decision that we all have to make.