SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2018
9:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Compromise”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
21:23-26
Message of the verses: “23 “Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men
who are under a vow; 24 take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay
their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there
is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you
yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law. 25 “But concerning the Gentiles
who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat
sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from
fornication." 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself
along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the
days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.”
Some of
the things found in this section are almost parallel with what was written to
the Gentiles found in Acts 15. James
wrote this in that letter “But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we
wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols
and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” What the elders of the Jerusalem church were
advising Paul to do in this section by no means abrogating the decree of the
Jerusalem Council regarding the Gentile believers. James made it clear in the council meeting
that the Gentiles were only required to “abstain from meat sacrificed to idols
and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” Now because Paul was Jewish, his
participation in the ceremony would not violate that decision.
So we see
that Paul was in no way compromising biblical truth since, as Paul himself had
written in Romans 14 and 15, such matters were issues of Christian
liberty. In fact, Paul participation in
the ceremony was an illustration of the principle he had laid down in 1
Corinthians 9:19-23 which we will now look at:
“19 For
though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all,
that I might gain the more. 20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I
might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I
might gain them that are under the law; 21 To them that are without law, as
without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that
I might gain them that are without law. 22 To the weak became I as weak, that I
might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by
all means save some. 23
And this
I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.”
Verse 26
tells us that “Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along
with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of
purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.”
Even
though some think that Paul should not have done what he did, and I myself
wondered about this in the past, Paul did not compromise anything that would go
against the Law of God.
John
MacArthur concludes this section and also his 19th chapter in his
second commentary on the book of acts with the following: “Paul’s humility permeates this
straightforward historical narrative. He
was humble before God, giving Him the glory for all that had been accomplished
through his ministry. He showed his
humility before other believers by agreeing to do what the elders asked of
him. Finally, Paul humbly accepted the
persecution he would shortly face.”
Answer to yesterday’s question: “Job” (Job 19:25).
Today’s Bible question:
“The people of what city worshiped the goddess Diana?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/5/2018 9:51 PM
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