Nov 10, 2013
Acts 15: 1- 21
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The
apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this
matter.
7 And
after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
“Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among
you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the
gospel and believe.
8 And God,
who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy
Spirit just as he did to us,
9 and he
made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their
hearts by faith.
10 Now,
therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on
the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been
able to bear?
11 But we
believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
just as they will.”
12 And all
the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as
they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among
the Gentiles.
13 After
they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to
me.
14 Simeon
has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a
people for his name.
15 And with
this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 “‘After
this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has
fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it,
17 that the
remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are
called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things
18 known
from of old.’
19 Therefore
my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who
turn to God,
20 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.
21 For from
ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim
him, for he is read every Sabbath in the
synagogues.”