ICS Daily Devotions
Let Us Be Peacemakers
Acts 15:30-33 (NKJV) So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them.
When the early church faced difficulties with tension between the Jewish and pagan segments of Christianity, the council of the Spirit-filled Christian apostles and leaders in Jerusalem was able to mark a new era in preaching the gospel in the proper way, as the church universally accepted their decision in relief and peace. If we walk in the peace of God, it will eventually make us peacemakers to the community around us.
James, the brother of Jesus and the presiding leader of the council, demonstrated a good example of this kind of divine peace. In those days, the church was dealing with a serious question: “do Gentiles who convert to Christianity need to be circumcised, and do they need to observe the Law of Moses?”
There was a lot of debate on the issue. Peter saw the vision of Gentiles converting to the Lord in Acts 10. Paul and Barnabas brought a similar report from their first missionary journey, witnessing how the Gentiles received the Word of God. The question was, however, whether the Gentiles should be obliged to keep the Jewish law just like the Jews. The Christians recruiting from the former Pharisees were convinced that keeping the old law was necessary. But according to Peter or Paul, Jews and Gentiles were saved by grace, so there was no reason to put the Gentiles under the obligations of the Law that even the Jews themselves were never able to keep properly.
In this situation, James stood up and made a call that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised or put under all the Mosaic customs, but they should abstain from certain foods affected by blood and from sexual immorality. This compromise set everyone at peace again: the apostles and leaders were in agreement, and the church gloriously multiplied. James handled a hot-button issue in a way that honored God and made peace in a heated debate. He is an example for us: we all may not be church leaders, but we can follow the Spirit and look for ways to bring peace to those around us.
Antioch was the place where most early Gentiles were converted. It was the place where they first labeled believers as “Christians”. There was no controversy in the city after Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas brought the message to them of how to live a Christian moral life. There was a lot of grace all around!
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NKJV) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Let us be peacemakers! God reconciled the world with Himself through Jesus Christ. We are His ambassadors if we bring the message of reconciliation to people. We are reconciled with God and walk according to the principles of God’s peace, and we spread it further as the good news of the gospel.
Sermon series: Having the Peace of God (5)
