Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 15, verses 5-34
1 Great dissension ariseth touching circumcision, 6 The apostles consult about it, and send their determination by letters to the churchesJohn, Chapter 10, verses 17-28
1 Christ is the door and the good Shepherd, 19 Diverse opinions of him, 24 He proveth by his works that he is Christ the Son of God; escapeth the Jews10
10:17 I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.
10:18 I lay it down of myself - By my own free act and deed. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again - I have an original power and right of myself, both to lay it down as a ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the sins of the whole world. This commission have I received of my Father - Which I readily execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his ownglory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in him self, as having an original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission.But this commission was the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He did it in obedience to his Father.
10:21 These are not the words - The word in the original takes in actions too.
10:22 It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas Maccabeus, Ma1 4:59, when he purged and dedicated the altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our Lord observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least, innocent for us to do the same?
10:23 In Solomon's portico - Josephus informs us, that when Solomon built the temple, he filled up a part of the adjacent valley, and built a portico over it toward the east. This was a noble structure, supported by a wall four hundred cubits high: and continued even to the time of Albinus and Agrippa, which was several years after the death of Christ.
10:26 Ye do not believe, because ye are not of my sheep - Because ye do not, will not follow me: because ye are proud, unholy, lovers of praise, lovers of the world, lovers of pleasure, not of God.
10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, etc - Our Lord still alludes to the discourse he had before this festival. As if he had said, My sheep are they who,
- Hear my voice by faith;
- Are known (that is, approved) by me, as loving me; and
- Follow me, keep my commandments, with a believing, loving heart.
- Truly believe (observe three promises annexed to three conditions) I give eternal life. He does not say, I will, but I give. For he that believeth hath everlasting life.Those whom,
- I know truly to love me, shall never perish, provided they abide in my love.
- Those who follow me, neither men nor devils can pluck out of my hand. My Father who hath, by an unchangeable decree, given me all that believe, love, and obey, is greater than all in heaven or earth, and none is able to pluck them out of his hand.
10:28 See note at Joh 10:27
15
15:5 But certain Pharisees - For even believers are apt to retain their former turn of mind, and prejudices derived therefrom.The law of Moses - The whole law, both moral and ritual.
15:7 After much debate - It does not appear that this was among the apostles themselves. But if it had, if they themselves had debated at first, yet might their final decision be from an unerring direction. For how really soever they were inspired, we need not suppose their inspiration was always so instantaneous and express, as to supersede any deliberation in their own minds, or any consultation with each other. Peter rose up - This is the last time he is mentioned in the Acts.
15:8 God bare them witness - That he had accepted them, by giving them the Holy Ghost.
15:9 Purifying - This word is repeated from Act 10:15;their hearts - The heart is the proper seat of purity; by faith - Without concerning themselves with the Mosaic law.
15:10 Now therefore - Seeing these things are so: why tempt ye God? - Why do ye provoke him to anger, by putting so heavy a yoke ontheir neck?
15:11 The Lord Jesus - He does not here say our Lord; because in this solemn place he means the Lord of all, we - Jews, shall be saved even as they - Gentiles, namely, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, not by our observance of the ceremonial law.
15:12 Miracles and wonders - By which also what St. Peter had said was confirmed.
15:14 Simon hath declared - James, the apostle of the Hebrews, calls Peter by his Hebrew name. To take out of them a people for his name - That is to believe in him, to be called by his name.
15:15 To this agree - St. Peter had urged the plain fact, which St. James confirms by Scripture prophecy. The words of the prophets - One of whom is immediately cited.
15:16 After this - After the Jewish dispensation expires. I will build again the fallen tabernacle of David - By raising from his seed the Christ, who shall build on the ruins of his fallen tabernacle a spiritual and eternal kingdom. Amo 9:11.
15:17 The Gentiles on whom my name is called - That is, who are called by my name; who are my people.
15:18 Known unto God are all his works from eternity - Which the apostle infers from the prophecy itself, and the accomplishment of it. And this conversion of the Gentiles being known to him from eternity, we ought not to think a new or strange thing. It is observable, he does not speak of God's works in thenatural world, (which had been nothing to his present purpose,) but of his dealing with the children of men. Now he could not know these, without knowing the characters and actions of particular persons, on a correspondence with which the wisdom and goodness of his providential dispensations is founded. For instance, he could not know how he would deal with heathen idolaters (whom he was now calling into his Church) without knowing there would be heathen idolaters: and yet this was a thing purely contingent, a thing as dependent on the freedom of the human mind, as any we can imagine. This text, therefore, among a thousand more, is an unanswerable proof, that God foreknows future contingencies, though there are difficulties relating hereto which men cannot solve.
15:20 To abstain from fornication - Which even the philosophers among the heathens did not account any fault. It was particularly frequent in the worship of their idols, on which account they are here named together. And from things strangled - That is, from whatever had been killed, without pouring out theblood. When God first permitted man to eat flesh, he commanded Noah, and in him all his posterity, whenever they killed any creature for food, to abstain from the blood thereof. It was to be poured upon the ground as water: doubtless in honour of that blood which was in due time poured out for the sin of the world.
15:21 Perhaps the connection is, To the Jews we need write nothing on these heads; for they hear the law continually.
15:22 With the whole Church - Which therefore had a part therein; to send chosen men - Who might put it beyond all dispute, that this was the judgment of the apostles and all the brethren.
15:23 Writing thus, and sending it by their hand - The whole conduct of this affair plainly shows that the Church in those days had no conception of St. Peter's primacy, or of his being the chief judge in controversies. For the decree is drawn up, not according to his, but the Apostle James's proposal and direction: and that in the name, not of St. Peter, but of all the apostles and elders, and of the whole Church. Nay, St. Peter's name is not mentioned at all, either in the order for sending to Jerusalem on the question, Act 15:2, or in the address of the messengers concerning it, Act 15:4, or in the letter which was written in answer.
15:24 Forasmuch as, etc - The simplicity, weightiness, and conciseness of this letter are highly observable.
15:26 Men that have hazarded their lives - This is spoken of Paul and Barnabas.
15:27 Who will tell you the same things - Which we have written.
15:28 These necessary things - All of these were necessary for that time. But the first of them was not necessary long; and the direction concerning it was therefore repealed by the same Spirit, as we read in the former Epistle to the Corinthians.
15:29 Blood - The eating which was never permitted the children of God from the beginning of the world. Nothing can be clearer than this. For,
- From Adam to Noah no man ate flesh at all; consequently no man then ate blood.
- When God allowed Noah and his posterity to eat flesh, he absolutely forbade them to eat blood; and accordingly this, with the other six precepts of Noah, was delivered down from Noah to Moses.
- God renewed this prohibition by Moses, which was not repealed from the time of Moses till Christ came.
- Neither after his coming did any presume to repeal this decree of the Holy Ghost, till it seemed good to the bishop of Rome so to do, about the middle of the eighth century.
- From that time those Churches which acknowledged his authority held the eating of blood to be an indifferent thing. But,
- In all those Churches which never did acknowledge the bishop of Rome's authority, it never was allowed to eat blood; nor is it allowed at this day. This is the plain fact; let men reason as plausibly as they please on one side or the other. From which keeping yourselves ye will do well - That is, ye will find a blessing.
This gentle manner of concluding was worthy the apostolical wisdom and goodness. But how soon did succeeding councils of inferior authority change it into the style of anathemas! Forms which have proved an occasion of consecrating some of the most devilish passions under the most sacred names; and like some ill - adjusted weapons of war, are most likely to hurt the hand from which they are thrown.