Quote:
Originally Posted by LUKE2447
you are taking Acts 15 out of context! So I can go a kill, covet, steal as those are not mentioned. The point was the minimum to allow them among there fellow Jewish brethren and not be cast out or offensive to them. Thus the point that Moses was read on the Sabbath and they could read more of the "scriptures" and come to an understanding of his desire for them. Also the yoke was the leaven of the Pharisees that added to. Better know as precept UPON precept or line UPON line.
These Pharisees had set in Moses seat and added to the Word of God made a yoke of bondage. They had done what God had told them not to do. Also the laws in reference to are those of the pharisees of circumcision which they had added all type of stipulations. Also the law of Moses that was mentioned is in reference to the "alleged" law which was oral tradition of the elders. Once you understand what Paul was fighting against you realize he was fighting with the same issues Jesus did and that was the oral traditions that where added that made God's written law void.
Notice also that when James came to Paul he agreed to give money to those help with the sacrifce and take a vow to prove he did not cast down God's laws as many have said he was doing. He wasn't he was just leading them to a deeper understanding of the law that was realized through the Spirit. |
No, actually you took
Acts 15 out of context. You used one verse and I went and explained the context then brought in Paul's explanation of food later on and WHY we can eat those foods but should avoid them so not to offend a brother that was weak.
Paul took JEWISH brothers to fulfill the law. Not Gentiles. Jews still kept the law but tried to force gentiles to keep the law and
Acts 15 determined they did not have to, BUT.....
Act 15:18 All His works are known to God from eternity.
Act 15:19 Therefore my judgment is that we do not trouble those who have turned to God from among the nations,
Act 15:20 but that we write to them that they should abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses from ages past has those in every city proclaiming him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
Act 15:24 Because we have heard that certain ones who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, Be circumcised and keep the law! (to whom we gave no such command);
we gave no such command
The purpose of telling them to keep certain parts of the law was because Moses was read in the synagogues. Thus this edit by the Apostles was because Moses was read.
Now read what Paul says about food in 1cor 8, particularly this part
1Co 8:7 However,
not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
1Co 8:8
Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
1Co 8:9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a
stumbling block to the weak.
1Co 8:10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
1Co 8:11
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
1Co 8:12 T
hus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
1Co 8:13
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Now read again what James says, you just quoted part of this
Act 21:24 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.
Act 21:25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality."
See what I mean? We are to abstain from this because of the Jews who believe. Their conscious can't handle this probably because for years they practiced the law and it would be a stumbling block
Paul continues his discourse on foods in chapter 9
1Co 9:20 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.
1Co 9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
1Co 9:22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
He is talking about Jews, Weak, Law, no law. To the Jews he becomes a jew and therefore lives as a jew, thus he kept the law when around jews. Remember Peter ate with the jews but separated himself from the gentiles when the other believing jews came around? Then what did Paul say to Peter?
Gal 2:11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
Gal 2:12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
Gal 2:13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
Gal 2:14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all,
"If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Gal 2:15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Gal 2:17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
Gal 2:18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
Gal 2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
Paul, in 1cor 9 is still on the food stuff and he is now saying he lives as a jew to the jews, as a gentile to the gentiles, as weak to the weak BUT all things are lawful to him they just are not all expedient
1Co 10:23 "All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.
1Co 10:24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
1Co 10:25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
1Co 10:26 For "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof."
1Co 10:27
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
1Co 10:28 But if someone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience--
1Co 10:29 I do not mean your conscience, but his.
For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?
1Co 10:30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
1Co 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1Co 10:32
Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
Col 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
Col 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Paul explains then the stuff about foods and offending Jews