Wednesday's Lesson - "No Greater Burden"

Read Acts 15:5–29. What decision did the council come to, and what was their reasoning?

In this passage we find that there were some from the sect of the pharisees who wanted the gentile Christians to be circumcised. The desire of the Pharisees brought about a dispute in the first century church which lead to a council to discuss the matter.

At the council Peter reminded the brethren that the same Holy Spirit which worked in them worked in the gentiles as well. He continues saying that God makes no distinction between them cleaning their hearts both by faith.

James also speaks up and quotes the words of the prophets which show that it is God's will to reach the gentiles. Based upon this James's judgement is that they do not trouble the gentiles. They resolved to lay no greater burden on the gentiles than the essentials.

I like the way that God tries to make things simple for us even when others try to give us a hard time. Praise God for His amazing grace.

What rules were placed on the Gentile believers (Acts 15:20, 29), and why these specific ones?

These essentials given to the gentiles where to Abstain from things offered to idols ,from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. They agreed that if gentiles does these things that they would do well.

The reason that they agreed to these specific rules was that they did not want the gentiles to do anything which would cause them to be an offense to the Jews. I believe that these things where ingrained into gentile culture which made it necessary to give special attention to these matters.

Could we, in some ways, be laying burdens on people that are not necessary but are more from tradition than divine command? If so, how? Bring your thoughts to class on Sabbath.

It is very much possible that we are doing this. Often times we have our pet ideas and our personal preferences which have nothing to do with salvation. We make these tests for other people and when they don't meet out tests we deem them not to be full Christians.

We must ask God's help to keep each one of us from being a stumbling block to our fellow Christians. We were not meant to tear each other down but to lift each other up.

Prayer: Father we thank your for all that you have done for us. Help us to be strengthening agents for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us to see the essentials of Christianity and not to get distracted by the side issues. Thank you in Jesus name amen.