When Outward Law Becomes a Snare to the Gospel

The Jerusalem council faced a crisis that threatened Christianity itself. Had the Judaisers prevailed, the faith would have collapsed into merely another Jewish sect. The peril was acute because their case possessed real force: the Mosaic law carried divine origin, centuries of venerable tradition, and profound national associations. We must not despise those Jewish Christians who clung to it—yet their eventual complete drifting away from Christianity teaches us a hard lesson about the dangers of binding outward observance to true discipleship.

Peter's characteristic vehemence shattered the Judaisers' silence by appealing to a fact they could not deny: God Himself had attested the genuine equality of uncircumcised converts through their possession of the same divine Spirit (pneuma hagion). Barnabas and Paul then clinched this divine testimony with sēmeia kai terata—signs and wonders—proving God's sanction upon Gentile admission without circumcision.

James, the bishop of Jerusalem (not an Apostle, yet wielding decisive influence), spoke next. This ascetic observer of the law—tradition claims his knees were hardened like a camel's through continual prayer—grounded his judgment not in sentiment but in facts. He pointedly called Peter by his old Hebrew name, Simeon, a tender reminiscence of their shared youth, before asking: what God has done through Peter's ministry to place Gentiles on equal footing with Jews—who can contradict this?

The principle cuts deep: any requirement imposed upon believers beyond what God Himself demands becomes a spiritual snare, however venerable its pedigree. The truest loyalty to tradition lies in following where God leads, not in preserving the forms He has transcended.