NOTES for Act 15:22-29

How do we read the Bible? In most cases we read some passage, look at what it is about, who is saying it and to whom. Then perhaps comes reflection on how all this concerns you specifically, what the Lord wants to say to you through this passage. And what joy there is when something important is found, something that touches a pressing problem. You understand that this was said for you.

Something similar can be said about today's passage from Acts. The words written by the Apostles and elders of the Church to the Gentile brothers are addressed to us as well. And not simply because these words are right and it is good to follow them. The point is that we are the very people whom the Apostles in their time would have counted among brothers converted from the Gentiles, since few of us could say that he was until recently a Jew. And that means the instruction "to abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality, and not to do to others what you do not want done to yourselves" (Acts 15:29) applies directly to us.

One can say that all this is not news and has long been known, but why then reread the Word at all? Every day God has something special and important for us, and by rereading the lines of Scripture we give Him the opportunity to tell us that something. Would a person who received a letter with his name on the envelope not read its contents?