Truth or Tradition

  

DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

TRUTH OR TRADITION

Acts 21:20-25

20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality."

NIV

This is the beginning of a long narrative of the events that happened to Paul in Jerusalem. It is interesting to consider the many thousands of Jews who believed. We know that on the day of Pentecost when Peter stood up and gave that magnificent sermon, three thousand accepted his message and believed in Jesus, and were baptized. Thousands more came to know Jesus as the Christ as we would have to believe that from that day with three thousand being saved, the word of the Lord kept growing in Jerusalem with thousand more coming to faith in Christ. However, what is troubling is they still observed the law of Moses, at least about circumcision, festivals, sacrifices, the distinction of meats and days, such as not eating pork, etc. How is it that Jesus came to abolish the law, and yet believers in Jesus still followed portions of the law? The Apostles and the leaders in Jerusalem rejoiced that Paul did so much among the Gentiles, but as far as Jews were concerned, they wanted him to show that he was living in accordance with the law. This is just foolishness, to try to live by that which does not bring either life or righteousness, all the while professing to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. We still have to remember it has been about twenty-five years after that day of Pentecost by the reckoning of some scholars. We would think that the truth would have won over the traditions of the law, but it had not and they wanted Paul to join in the purification rites with four men, as well as pay for their expenses. The fact that there was a cost to underdo the act of purification shows us they really did not understand the truth that is it faith in Jesus Christ that makes us pure and blameless in the sight of God. But these believers were not concerned with what was right in the sight of God as much as they were about what was right in the sight of men, and these were the leaders of the church. It has been some thousands of years later and we still have believers who want to adhere to portions of the law, even though Jesus fulfilled all the laws and so that if we are in Christ and he is in us, we have fulfilled all the law, and thus are no longer subject to it. Jesus said when questioned about the commands of God, that only two commands remain. One is to love the Lord our God with all our being, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus was clear when he said that all the laws and the words of the prophets hang on these two commands. However, here we are today with so many not paying attention to these two commands, but what to hang onto the old commands of God, even creating some of their own laws or rules and regulations that by abiding by them, show themselves to be Christians before men. But God does not care about us living to please men, but only living to please him. There is no way to please God by forgoing what he did for us by sending his Son to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and through Jesus, he redeemed us and set us free from both the penalty of sin and the law, which does not bring us righteousness. We have to go back to Abraham, a man before the law was given, who believe what God said and acted only to please God, and because of that, it was counted unto him as righteousness. When then do we want anything to do with any part of the law, except those two commands of Jesus? Why do we want to please men when we should be pleasing God? If we are righteous in the eyes of God because of our faith in Jesus, why then must we follow any law, appearing to be righteous before men? No, let us remain faithful to God, and God alone, living a life of faith and faith alone. Of course, because we love the Lord, we are going to put our faith into action, and that would be loving our neighbors as ourselves. We cannot confuse faith in action with good works done in the church, for that is simply our being a part of the body, but the works, putting faith in action happens among the crooked and depraved generation in which we live. It always comes back to truth or tradition.