We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.“This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings! We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them! So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”
The messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter. And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message.
Nothing is more encouraging than being able to hear that fellow Christians are in "complete agreement" with something, especially if it is specific to you personally. I know that this message, however breif, was uplifting to the confused and abused believers in Antioch. They most likely felt alone and perplexed as to how to live a new life. I'm so glad that Barnabas and the others spoke Truth to the Jews and other Leaders so that the Gentile believers knew they were accepted as part of the family. The unity that results from truth and agreement is something God created, it can be duplicated or imitated by men. To obtain that kind of peace you must fall on your knees to the Lord in prayer and acknowledge that you need Him and you need the Body to accomplish His ministry on earth.
0 comments:
Post a Comment