Not Trouble Them (Acts 15:19)

 


Friday, July 4, 2025


Psalms 11; 12

1 Samuel 24:8-25:1

Acts 15:12-21


Not Trouble Them (Acts 15:19)


[James said] “Therefore my judgement is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,”


After all this drama about the Law of Moses, of circumcision and all the rest of it, the council at Jerusalem has made their decision. Do not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, and everyone stood up and clapped. But – and here it might get confusing. Is St James picking and choosing which laws to follow and which ones to ignore? Surely it should be a blanket command; either all or nothing. Let’s just have a closer look at which laws get included, though, and see if we can’t make sense of the apostles thinking.


We are to abstain anything polluted by idols. We are to remember whose universe we live in; we are to remember to whom we belong. We are to abstain from sexual immorality; and if the Song of Songs has anything to teach us, it is that the way we love sexually reveals how we love spiritually. Then we get to this bit about strangling. I must admit, I may be committing the crime of the church fathers and reading this too allegorically, but we are in the book that has been sometimes called “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is compared to breath, or wind. And as incarnational people, what does it say when we cut off the breath of an animal? Finally, the command to abstain from blood. Once again I may be guilty of an allegorical reading, but the theme of blood is across the entire Bible as being closely related to the source and presence of life. To live incarnationally, to match our physical experience with our spiritual, would suggest that we ought to have a high respect for blood.


If the greatest commandment is to love, then we can see how St James’ exclusions point to divine love. We love God, and the universe he made for us. We are devoted to him above all other loves. That love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and the path to God’s love is through the shed blood of Jesus. How we live physically and how we live spiritually are so closely connected we should be living in a way that brings the two together.


And so our spiritual ancestors, the Jews of the ancient church who first followed Jesus, judged that we Gentiles who turn to God should not be troubled, but rejoice. And we should not be held under the yoke of the Law of Moses, but the greater Law to which it pointed, the Law of God’s love.


What troubles you about God’s law? Where is God calling out to you in love in that law?


God whose love is revealed in your righteousness: teach us to seek after your law, that we may discover your love within it, and so live in love and righteousness that we may cause trouble for none who turn to you.

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