'Ac 15:1

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Ac 15:1-35 FIRST MAJOR CHURCH PROBLEM

Judaisers trouble the churches (Ac 15:1) The writer of Acts has already shown that many of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were not happy that Gentiles should be received into the church as equal with Jews, but without having to follow the Jewish laws (see Ac 11:1-3).

Peter may have silenced them once (see Ac 11:18), but many still retained their old Jewish attitudes and ideas.

A group of these Jews now came from Jerusalem to Antioch in Syria, teaching that Gentile converts had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Ac 15:1; see also Ac 15:5).

These men claimed they had authority from James, but James later denied this (Gal 2:12; cf. Acts 15:24).

They argued so persuasively that even mature Christians such as Peter and Barnabas stopped eating with the Gentile Christians in case they broke Jewish food laws. Paul, who before his conversion was as zealous a Jew as any, saw that the teaching of the Judaisers was contrary to the Christian gospel.

A forthright public rebuke from Paul resulted in Peter and Barnabas realizing their error and resuming fellowship with the Gentiles (Gal 2:11-16; cf. Acts 15:6-12).

Paul writes to the Galatians

Soon after correcting the trouble in Antioch, Paul heard that the Judaisers had spread their teachings to the newly planted churches of Galatia (Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe) and some of the new Christians were being led astray. Angered at this, Paul immediately sent off a sharply worded letter, known to us as the Letter to the Galatians (Gal 1:6; 3:1).

In this letter Paul pointed out that there was only one gospel, the one he preached, and that the law of Moses has no authority over Christians. They are justified by faith in Christ and live by the same faith. Though free from the law of Moses, they are not lawless, but under the direction of the indwelling Spirit of Christ (Gal 3:3; 5:1,13,16,18).