Acts 15 - God's path and not my own

Chapter 15 has a considerable amount of disagreement and conflict in it among the believers, and I’m starting to get it through my head that God has something to tell me in this area. I’ve never been one that liked conflict, I’ve never been one that desired to deal with tough conversations and situations head on, and I know that has to change. I’ve taken steps that way, I believe, but I’ve got a lot further to go. Paul and even the other disciples give a great example of what it looks like to deal with issues that are being faced and how to handle those situations.

In this first section, we see how and why the disagreement arose, and again it is a story from 2,000 years ago but is something that is seen all the time in this day and age. Large numbers of people are being saved, the Spirit is moving like crazy, and here come the people that always show up, those that want to put in place a bunch of rules, those that want to control things, and it causes some problems. Paul and Barnabas have some discussion about the issue at hand, and finally it is decided that they should go back to Jerusalem and discuss it with the apostles and elders there. The thing that is screaming in my head is how many people missed out on the simple message of the gospel because of this theological debate. How many more people could Paul and Barnabas have ministered to if they didn’t waste days and weeks and maybe even months debating these theological issues with the apostles and other disciples. How many people in my community have missed out on hearing about the grace that God offers through Jesus because of the time I’ve wasted “studying theology” while not living it out. It is truly sickening to me to think about how many people could have been baptized by all the people that have spent hundreds and thousands of hours of their lives debating and studying and proving what they think baptism means and does. Now this is not an excuse to just form a quick opinion about theology and go spread it, we are instructed to know the word and we should attempt to learn the Bible and find out what God intended us to know by giving us His word, but we have to know that the Word is worthless to us if we don’t do anything with it. We can memorize every bit of scripture, have our theology nailed down with exactly what the Bible says and teaches, yet if we don’t do something with the incredible truth we’ve been given we aren’t any better off than the pagan who doesn’t know any scripture. Jesus didn’t call us to be knowers and learners and thinkers, He called us to be followers, to be disciples. His followers and His disciples didn’t sit around debating theology; they didn’t sit around doing anything. They went everywhere, teaching and preaching His name and the salvation that is only offered through him. I heard last year the following quote: “Our level of knowledge far exceeds our level of obedience.” That is so incredibly true in my life and in the lives of most Christians around me and it makes me think, what if those were more evenly matched. What if I sacrificed “knowing” more at the expense of living in obedience to what I already know? That is living how God wants me to live. That is doing what God wants me to do. That is living by the Spirit, and that’s what I want!

Paul and Barnabas convene with the apostles and elders and deal with this issue of disagreement, and this is where we see the Biblical model of confrontation on display. They didn’t talk in secret meetings or behind backs, they didn’t talk in generalities or in second-hand information, they simply got together and talked through the issues. I am sure there were some tough things said and I’m sure there were some awkward moments, but in the end they were able to discuss what was going on and come to a conclusion, the right, Spirit-led, conclusion. This is an area of my life where God has challenged me often over the last year, in dealing with conflict and strife. I have always shied away from conversations and situations like these, but God is asking me to change that. Biblical confrontation is necessary in relationships among believers and in the relationships in a church, and if I want to be a part of a healthy church atmosphere I have to be willing to confront and have open and honest conversations when needed. Lord help me in this!

After much discussion, they come to the conclusion that these Gentiles do not need to be circumcised or follow all of the laws of Moses, and the church decides to send a group of people to relay the message and take a letter to essentially apologize. Again, rather than trying to just let things die or now owning up to the fact that they were wrong, they came right out and apologized and tried to encourage the believers. One of the other things I’ve been strongly convicted on is my unwillingness to apologize. I hate it when I’m wrong, and I still believe it doesn’t happen very oftenJ, but when I am wrong, I hate even more to apologize. My pride runs strong and deep and I just don’t like to apologize, and is another area I need a great deal of help from the Spirit to get better at.

The group from Jerusalem went, shared a message, encouraged the people, and headed back in peace. They resolved the conflict and everyone was able to move forward in a positive manner, which will always happen when both individuals or both groups are being led by the Spirit and are willing to have open, honest conversations. When that approach is one sided, however, that is when things don’t always go so well. When one group is led by the Spirit and the other is led by men, feelings get hurt, bridges get burned, and that reconciliation or healing doesn’t happen.

Father help me to always be willing to apologize, to always be willing to have open and honest conversations, to always be willing to let the Spirit lead in situations where it easy for my heart and my sinful nature to take over. God convict me of bridges that I have burned in the past and help me to live, as far as it depends on me, at peace with others. I want to live by your Spirit, and a good test of that is who I lean on in the midst of confrontation. Let it always be on you!

Once again in this final section of Acts 15 there is disagreement, this time between Paul and Barnabas. This obviously was a big deal, as it was a “sharp disagreement”, but Paul and Barnabas were able to part company and go their separate ways to do ministry. This is a great example of a simple fact of life I think that God calls people into ministry but it isn’t always in the design for those to do ministry together. We need to hold lightly to our relationships and those we are doing ministry with as God might separate that in the future. While there are people in my life that I would love to do ministry with forever, that sometimes just doesn’t happen. There are people at the Church of Christ that I already miss doing youth groups and other ministries with. They will be lifelong friends but God had different plans for our paths in ministry, and that is OK. There are people at New Heights that I already love doing ministry with, but I know and understand that God will likely call us to go down different paths someday. It is God’s will and God’s plan, and not mine. I am sure Paul and Barnabas loved ministry together, and in this moment God used a disagreement to show them the next path they were to go down, it just happened to be different paths. I want to always be one who goes down God’s path, no matter who else is on it.