21:26 If the law of Moses did not apply to Christians why did Paul take part in Jewish rites under the law and offer sacrifice in the temple?
21:26 If the law of Moses did not apply to Christians why did Paul take part in Jewish rites under the law and offer sacrifice in the temple?
(CP V17-26). Just as early Christianity did not require Gentiles to adopt a Jewish lifestyle, it did not require Jewish believers to adopt a Gentile lifestyle.
Paul as a Jew had a perfect right to adopt a Jewish lifestyle when among Jews, and a Gentile way of life when among Gentiles (CP 1Cor 9:19-23; 10:32-33).
But when a conflict arose between adopting the culture and following basic Christian truths, Paul refused to compromise (CP Ga 2:3-5, 11-21; 5:1-6). Paul took part in these Jewish rites under the law and offered sacrifice in the temple to prove to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that he did not disapprove of their customs and therefore was not turning Jewish Christians away from them, as his detractors claimed.
James and the elders in the Jerusalem church persuaded Paul to do it in order to avoid any upheaval in the church between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. However, before the purification rites were even completed, Paul's detractors attacked him, bodily removed him from the temple, and set about to kill him. But the chief captain of the Roman guard intervened and saved him (CP Ac 21:27-40; 22:22).
What happened to Paul here fulfilled Agabus' prophecy in 21:10-11
(see comments on Ac 21:10-11), and author's study Paul the Apostle - a Chosen Vessel unto God in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2).