As you can tell from the reading today, there was some controversy over whether Gentiles who accepted the Lord had to be circumcised in order to be saved. Paul and Barnabas did not think so and their church in Antioch of Syria sent them to Jerusalem for the council that would discuss it.
Why do you suppose that, down through the years, people in the church have wanted to add requirements to the Good News. Peter put it best when he said, “We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” As Paul says in Galatians (we’ll read this tomorrow): “Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
Did you notice the rift, called a sharp disagreement, between Paul and Barnabas? Remember when John Mark left them in Pamphylia? Barnabas wanted to give him another chance, but Paul adamantly refused. Instead, Barnabas took John Mark with him to Cyprus and Paul took Silas with him to Syria and Cilicia.
Tomorrow, we’ll read Galatians 1 - 3.
Until next time…
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