Acts 15:22-41 The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers and Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas

The action continues today with the council writing the letter to the Gentile believers telling them they don’t need to be circumcised but need to follow certain requirements. They are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.  The council sent Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch with Judas (Barsabbas) and Silas.

The four men went to Antioch, shared the letter and the believers encouraged. Judas and Silas spent some time encouraging and strengthening the believers in Antioch. They then left Paul and Barnabas with the believers and returned to Jerusalem.

Later Paul and Barnabas plan to visit the believers in all the towns where they had preached. Barnabas wanted to take Mark (John Mark) with them, but Paul didn’t think that was a good idea because Mark had left them at Pamphylia. The disagreement was so great that Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways. Barnabas and Mark sailed for Cyprus while Paul and Silas went to Syria and Cilicia. Luke seems to believe that Paul was right stating that Paul wan commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord and then he strengthened the churches.

Paul and Barnabas are the first example of a split in the church. The disagreement seems so trivial to me, but than again most of the splits in the church have been over trivial matters. Our history includes disagreements and parting of ways over what happens during the Eucharist, should the Eucharist be celebrated every week, should there be candles on the altar, and the list goes on and on.

I wonder what God thinks of the mess we are constantly making of His church. Does He really care about any of these things? Isn’t the most important thing to love God and love your neighbor? What would the world be like if we concentrated on love and not all the other stuff?