We Can Work it Out

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” - Act 15v28-29

In some circles “compromise” can be a dirty word. I still have a dictionary that has the word “compromise” crossed out because a preacher said it should not be part of our vocabulary. And yet, as we look at the church in its early stages, give and take was apart of their practice.

Here the apostles and pastors in Jerusalem faced a crisis. On one hand they had saved Jews who had spent their whole lives trying to keep the law. On the other hand they had saved Gentiles who had lived lives with no restrictions or limits on behaviour. How do you reconcile a problem like that?

They met, they prayed, they talked, and they discussed. Finally they came up with, dare we say, a compromise. They wrote a letter to be carried by the preachers with a few things to help draw the church together. These were designed so that the Jews would not be offended and that the Gentiles would not run wild in liberty.

Avoid foods offered to idols

Avoid foods which involved blood

Avoid foods from animals that had been strangled

Avoid sexual immorality

The churches and believers of the time did not have the completed Bible yet. Of these suggestions only one of them would be repeated in the rest of the New Testament. Sexual purity would be the only one of these that would make it to the completed New Testament. From Romans 14-15 it does not appear that the others were permanent restrictions, but a compromise until the church was established.

There are times when God just wants us to work it out. So often we can do that without compromising Scripture. Let’s give it a go folks – surely we can work it out.