NOTES for Act 15:1-35
Today's reading tells us about the event church historians usually call the Council of the Apostles (v. 6). Evidently, the chief issue discussed there was religion and its place in the Church. This is hardly surprising: one of the demands certain preachers made of new converts was mandatory observance of the norms and laws of the Jewish religion (vv. 1–2). Apparently, these preachers believed that there were religious norms and rules obligatory for the Kingdom. There is nothing surprising about this: according to the evangelist, they came from Judea and were therefore, like all its inhabitants, deeply religious people. For them, the Jewish tradition was a natural, organic way of life, outside which they apparently could not imagine the Kingdom either. But such religiosity was foreign to converts from paganism, and so Peter asks a reasonable question at the council: can one impose on recent pagans something that at times proved beyond the strength even of the Jews themselves (v. 10)?
The main point, however, lay elsewhere. At issue was what is necessary for salvation, for entering the Kingdom. Evidently, there were people in the Church convinced that accepting Christ alone was not enough, that one could not enter the Kingdom without religion (v. 5). But the apostles and the other participants in the council decided otherwise: for the Kingdom, religious affiliation is not a fundamental issue. This decision was expressed in the language generally used in the Church at that time—the language of religious legislation. Converts from paganism were advised to abstain from food offered to idols and therefore from participation in pagan cults, as well as from bloodshed and sexual immorality. The well-known “golden rule” was also reaffirmed: do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself (v. 29). [Translator's note: Here the author follows the Russian Synodal translation of Acts 15:29, which includes this phrase; it is absent from the King James Version.] Such norms were traditionally proposed to proselytes who did not intend to embrace Judaism but believed in the God of Abraham.
Thus the Council of the Apostles confirmed that a former pagan who had accepted Christ did not have to embrace Judaism in order to be saved. Religion and spiritual life were clearly distinguished, and the way into the Kingdom was opened to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. This decision was immensely important: it emphasized once again that Christianity is not a new religion but life in the Kingdom, open to anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with Him. Religion remained merely a means that could sometimes help a person along this path. A place could be found for it both in the Kingdom and in the Church. But on one indispensable condition: it must never hide Christ from those who seek Him or close their way into the Kingdom—not for anyone, ever.