Are Early Christian Directives at Odds with Faith?
In this article, you will learn how Acts 21:25 contradicts Matthew 5:17, Romans 6:14, Galatians 5:3, Ephesians 2:15, Galatians 2:16, Colossians 2:14 and Hebrews 8:13. Find the translations at the bottom of the page..
The early Christian community grappled with integrating new Gentile believers into a spiritual framework originally rooted in Jewish tradition. Acts 21:25 represents a pivotal point in this journey, where Gentile Christians were instructed to abstain from specific practices: avoiding food offered to idols, consuming blood, meat from strangled animals, and immoral acts. But does this directive align with broader New Testament teachings?
Consider Matthew 5:17, where Jesus declares he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. This pronouncement suggests a broader, continuous significance of the law, potentially clashing with the limited restrictions given in Acts 21:25. It's like receiving a new software update that claims to overhaul the entire system, yet only a small part is visibly changed—are we missing the bigger picture?
Romans 6:14 and Galatians 2:16 emphasize liberation from the law through faith, posing a question: why enforce specific laws for Gentiles if the law itself is seen as an outdated mechanism for justification? It's as if being told the old rulebook no longer applies, yet certain rules are still highlighted—it creates a perplexing scenario.
Galatians 5:3 warns that embracing one part of the law means obligating oneself to the entire law. Imagine attending a buffet where you can eat anything, but choosing one dish obliges you to eat everything else—doesn't this contrast with the selective prohibitions in Acts?
Both Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14 speak of abolishing and blotting out ordinances, akin to erasing the chalkboard only to redraw select lines. Hebrews 8:13 refers to the old covenant as fading, leaving us to ponder why some directives remain.
These texts raise essential questions about the nature of law, faith, and what it means to be a follower. Are selective prohibitions a bridge or barrier in faith’s journey from old to new?
| # | Verse | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Acts 21:25 | As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written [and] concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from [things] offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. |
| 2. | Matthew 5:17 | Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. |
| 3. | Romans 6:14 | For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. |
| 4. | Galatians 5:3 | For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. |
| 5. | Ephesians 2:15 | Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; |
| 6. | Galatians 2:16 | Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. |
| 7. | Colossians 2:14 | Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; |
| 8. | Hebrews 8:13 | In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away. |