Paul Meets with James and Shows Publicly His Reverence for Jewish Laws

“When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.  On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.  After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.  And when they heard it, they glorified God...Do therefore what we tell you.  We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads.  Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.” –Acts 21:17-20a; 23-24 (ESV.  Read Acts 21:17-26).

It was both a glad and a bittersweet reunion when Paul ended his missionary journey at Jerusalem.  He had an audience before James, the brother of Jesus, who served as the “senior” pastor of the Jerusalem church.  They heard Paul as he related “one by one” (that is, gave a detailed report) in the outreach ministry to the Gentiles in the places he had been. But rumors were rife about Paul and his work.  Even though the Jerusalem church had written a letter to Gentile Christians to state they did not have to go through the Jewish rituals of the law to be a Christian, a group among them (the Judaizers) still thought the law according to Moses should be obeyed in its entirety, including all the interpretations of the law that made it burdensome.  Rumor had it that Paul had encouraged Jews to forsake their ancestral practices of the law.  This he had never done.  The leaders came up with a way, they thought, of placating Paul’s opponents.  They had four men who had taken a Nazarite vow. The vow entailed abstinence from strong drink, grapes or raisins for thirty days, no contact with a dead body, and several other abstentions.  They would cut their hair at the end of thirty days, go through ritual purification and offer sacrifices in the temple among which were a one-year old lamb for a sin offering, a ram for a peace offering, a basket of unleavened bread with oil, meat offerings and drink offerings.  It would have been costly to provide these for four men who probably did not have the resources to buy them for themselves.  Paul was asked to provide the money for sacrifices so the men could fulfill their vow.  And in so doing, he was to likewise purify himself.  He consented to do so, Paul, who had long preached that the law does not save anyone.  Was he compromising his beliefs to placate the elders and those who condemned Paul for being the apostle to the Gentiles?  Paul probably found the act distasteful and against his better judgment.  But to seek the peace and for the sake of the church, he agreed to the plan.  In so doing, he “gave notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them” (v. 26).  Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth:  “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.  To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.”  (I Cor. 9:20).  He subordinated his own wishes in order to keep peace among the brethren.  “There is a time when compromise is not a sign of weakness but of strength” states Dr. William Barclay (Daily Study Bible: Acts, p. 170).

In one of my husband’s pastorates the church was voting whether to build a much needed educational complex.  One deacon, because he was very opposed to borrowing the sum of money needed for the undertaking, talked against the plan and sought to win others to his viewpoint.  But when the church in conference voted to accept the proposal, borrow the necessary funds, and begin the project, he, publicly, in church conference stood and pledged his support, stating that he would work for what the church voted to do.  A beautiful edifice was soon in place, and with increased attendance and more giving, the indebtedness was paid in an incredibly short time.  God was in the enterprise, and blessed it, using it to multiply those reached for teaching and evangelism.  With Paul, as we will see, his compliance to the elders’ wishes did not meet with as much success.  False rumors die hard, and they persisted about Paul.  He would soon be the center of mob violence and arrest.  He knew troubles would come, even as he set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem.  But God’s plan prevailed, despite the sufferings Paul had to endure.  In Paul’s actions, God received the glory.