An Unlikely Accord
5/22/25 Bible Thought (Acts 15)
Disagreements categorize human experience. Everyone is familiar with them. Very frequently people simply don’t see eye to eye, and this isn’t a new phenomenon. In Acts 15, Luke recounts the Jerusalem Council where the early church had to hash out some of their own disagreements.
The subject? Circumcision.
Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God had made with Abraham (Gen. 17:1-14). It was required for keeping Passover (Ex. 2:48) and it was later mandated by the law of Moses (Lev. 12:3). The standard was that anyone who wasn’t circumcised would be cut off from amongst the people (Gen. 17:14).
Now, in the church, Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ. They are being grafted into the covenant people, and so would they need to be circumcised too? That had been the pattern for over 1,000 years, but would the pattern suddenly change?
We can only imagine how divided the assembly must have been. For there were the traditionalists who proclaimed,
“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:2).
For them, it was black and white. Salvation required this covenant sign to be applied. Yet, Paul, Peter, and others had experienced God’s acceptance of Gentile believers through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, without circumcision even being a discussion.
Peter would conclude,
“But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:11).
Salvation isn’t to be dependent upon works, even as simple as circumcision, it was a gift that is graciously given by God.
After hashing things out, the council came to agreement on some very simple moral expectations for Gentile believers that did not include circumcision. They write all this down in a letter, making the statement,
“It has seemed good to us, having come to one accord…” (Acts 15:25a).
The church, although highly divided over an issue of covenant that had major historical precedent, came to one accord.
Their letter also stated,
“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28).
The reason they were able to come to one accord is because they were willing to lay aside their own personal agendas and to instead seek God’s will on the subject.
God isn’t divided. He isn’t unsure. God isn’t unable to make up His mind. As such, the church’s responsibility wasn’t making their own decision—rather, it was coming to find and agree with God’s decision.
God was the covenant-maker, and yet He was accepting these people without that sign of the covenant. No longer would circumcision be an outward thing. Instead, circumcision was to be of the heart (see Rom. 2:28-29).
Someone once said that if you tune 100 pianos in different rooms, or even different locations, to the same fork that when they are gathered together, they could play in perfect harmony.
Ironically, the same Paul and Barnabas who took this letter teeming with unison and Holy Spirit guidance to gentile believers would by the end of the chapter split up their missionary efforts because they couldn’t come to agreement on whether or not to take John Mark with them again!
The secret to unity in the church, in decision-making of any kind really, is for every Christian to be tuned to the same fork.
If we lay aside our own preferences (see Phil. 2:3-4) and seek God’s will and direction, we won’t die on our hills of tradition or opinion. With this, we ought to be able to come to one accord on any decision, no matter how unlikely that might be.