The Council's Letters

Hi! and happy TGIF to all of us, GUYS.  For our "food for the soul" this Friday:

THE GOOD NEWS (29 April 2016)

"Then the apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.  These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter:

Greetings from the apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.  We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind.  They were not appointed by us.  But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.  We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.

We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary.  You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages.  If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.  Farewell.

After saying good-bye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter.  When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them." - Acts 15:22-31 

The Chosen Representatives, Barsabbas And Silas

(If we re-read Chapter 2 of Galatians, then Acts 21:25, we may think that Luke has combined here two events: the meeting at Jerusalem as well as a decision James took later for the Churches that depended directly on Jerusalem and where the Christians of Jewish origin formed the majority.  That helps to understand the decree that follows.

The final decision of the "Council" of Jerusalem, as it is presented here, is doubtless the best the apostles and the Holy Spirit could do at the time.  Let us frankly say that the settlement could only be provisional and lacked doctrinal justification.  To impose Jewish laws was to penalize non-Jews; it was also a way of saying that the Church was unable to live according to the "newness" of the Gospel, free of the past, free of religious discipline.  In fact, a few years later, there was no question of these laws since the Church had freed itself of the Jewish community, just as it had been rejected by the Jews.

The Council's Letters

The following expressions are to be noted; the apostles, the elders, and the whole community... it has seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us: the decision of the community united to its apostles guarantees the presence of the Holy Spirit.  On several occasions in history, similar debates have taken place, but then it was not a question of freeing the Gospel of the Old Testament laws; it was the laws and customs of the Church that had become the impossible burden to carry [v. 10] for a large human majority.  Only when a debate is wide open, as was the one at Jerusalem, does it succeed in pointing out the obstacles and ecclesiastical taboos.  As long as the central organisms stifle the liberty of expression, the mission weakens and encloses itself within a traditional clientele decreasing day by day.)

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