New believers, old burdens...

As we saw in the post above, it can be hard for us to let go of the beliefs and habits of a lifetime. Many years after what happened with Simon in Acts chapter eight, we find another example of this with the early Christians in Acts chapter fifteen.

Among the Jewish believers in Jerusalem were some people who had grown up as Pharisees, and they carried that legalistic tendency over to their new found faith in Jesus. When they heard that many Gentiles were coming to faith, they wanted these new believers to be circumcised,  just as the Jews were. 

The debate became so emotionally charged, that a council of church leaders was convened in Jerusalem for the specific purpose of seeking God's wisdom on how to resolve this question. During the gathering, Peter gives testimony of how God is obviously welcoming and blessing Gentile believers, even pouring out the Holy Spirit upon them as He had previously done on the Jewish Christians. Peter argued that they would be "challenging God" if they attempted to burden the Gentile believers with human traditions and with laws that had historically been too heavy for the Hebrews to bear.

At the conclusion of the gathering, one of the church elders,  James, makes a summary of the meetings and the decision taken. Referring to Peter's testimony and also to scripture itself,  he says, "Let's not make it difficult for Gentiles who are turning to God." They identify just a few key principles from the scriptures - things like avoiding sexual immorality - and they pass on those things... but they are careful not to pass on all the "old ways of thinking," some of which are based more on human traditions than on Bible truth.

In the 21st Century, it would be so easy for us to do what James urges us not to do: making it difficult for new believers by insisting that they follow our old ways of doing things. Perhaps our habits and beliefs of a lifetime are to do with the sort of clothing that should be worn to church, about whether people can bring their children with them, about whether it's okay to clap when someone gives a testimony, or whether it's offensive to drink from a water bottle during the service... Often we don't even recognise that we are holding on to old customs and burdens that never came from God in the first place.

We're not talking about excusing sin. Let's not pretend that living with your common law partner or same sex spouse doesn't matter, for example. Let's not fail to make it clear that giving up our sin and embracing a holy lifestyle are still important in God's eyes...

... but let's remember that living a holy lifestyle is as much about giving up gossip as giving up smoking; as much about refraining from judging others as it is about refraining from getting drunk.

The message of Acts 15 is clear: let's not weigh down new believers with old burdens. Let's, instead,  join the angels in rejoicing over every new believer that enters the family of God.