Acts 15:22-41: Dealing with Our Differences

Acts 15:22-41: Dealing with Our Differences

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 15:22-41. It says,

22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” 30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. 36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

One of the biggest blessings of these past five years that our church has been in existence is the wonderful degree of unity we’ve enjoyed. As Psalm 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” And, generally speaking, that’s been our church. However, it would be quite foolish and naïve for us to think that just because we’ve enjoyed such unity so far that we’re somehow immune to division or discord. 

I remember when I was in college, I went on a trip with some friends down to Florida for spring break. And on this trip, I didn’t bring any sunscreen. So once we were down there, one of my friends noticed that I didn’t bring any sunscreen and offered to let me use some of his. But instead of taking him up on his offer, I informed my friend that I had been out in the sun without any sunscreen all summer long the previous summer and never got burned. So I was pretty confident that I’d be just fine for a single week during the spring. I thought I was immune. However, I failed to take into account that I had spent the previous summer up in the mountains of North Carolina rather than on a beach in Florida. I also failed to take into account that my skin had become quite white during the winter and had lost the tan it had gradually taken on the previous year. So you can probably guess what happened on that trip. After my very first day on the beach, I was as red as a lobster. I thought I was immune until I experienced that Florida sun. Then I discovered that I was, in fact, very much not immune. So if you want to learn from my painful experience, there are two things you might want to consider. Number one, wear sunscreen. And number two, don’t assume that our church is somehow immune to conflict just because we’ve been getting along okay so far. We’re no more immune to conflict than I was immune to sunburn. The fact is that Satan would love to stir things up and bring dissention into our church. 

And, of course, there’s no shortage of opportunities for him to do so since—in case you haven’t noticed—there are quite a few issues these days about which Christians often disagree. Perhaps the most obvious such issues relate to politics and the way Christians should approach various political ideologies. There are also plenty of questions related to COVID and COVID-related government restrictions and how Christians should respond to the continuing presence of COVID. Then, in addition to all of those kinds of things, there are also the perennial issues about which Christians often disagree such as whether it’s okay to consume alcohol in moderation, what kinds of movies or TV shows are okay to watch, what kinds of activities are permitted on Sundays, what forms of discipline are okay to use when disciplining a child, whether Christians should send their children to public schools or not, and what kinds of music we should sing in church. Then, on top of all of these issues Christian often disagree about, there’s the simple fact that people have different personalities and that certain personalities often don’t mesh very well with other personalities. And on top of all of that, we’re sinners and sometimes sin against each other. 

So that’s why I say that it’s only a matter of time until something comes up in our church. We’ve been incredibly blessed to enjoy the unity we’ve enjoyed so far, but as you can see, there are many different vulnerabilities that Satan can exploit in order to stir up division and dissention in our church. It’s not a matter of if—it’s just a matter of when. So it’s critical that we prepare ourselves for that and learn now how to approach contentious issues in a biblical way. And that’s precisely what we learn from our main passage, Acts 15:22-41. The main idea of this passage is that God calls us to approach contentious issues with biblical wisdom and love. God calls us to approach contentious issues with biblical wisdom and love.

Now, just to remind you of the context here: we saw last time in the first half of chapter 15 that some men from Judea were causing trouble in the church of Antioch by claiming that in order to be saved you had to first be circumcised. Circumcision was something God instructed Abraham and his descendants to do as a sign that they were God’s chosen people. So, naturally, it was the source of great national pride and national identity for the Jews. And some of these Jews who claimed to be Christians were teaching that circumcision is a requirement for being saved and going to heaven. These men are often known as Judaizers and were essentially denying the central Christian teaching that people are saved by grace alone—not by a combination of grace plus works but rather by grace alone. 

So Paul and Barnabas recognize that this teaching of circumcision as a requirement for salvation is an error of the first degree and are therefore sent by the church of Antioch down to the church of Jerusalem in order to take the issue before the apostles and leaders of the Jerusalem church. So all of the heavy-hitters in the early church gather together at Jerusalem in order to discuss this issue and make a decision about whether or not to permit these kinds of teachings. And after coming to a consensus, they together write a letter to the church of Antioch, which is recorded in verses 23-29 of the chapter. 

And the first thing I want us to notice about this letter is what it says about the Judaizers. Beginning in verse 24, the letter says, “[We] have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions.” The rest of the letter then proceeds to give instructions directly contradicting the teachings of the Judaizers, as we’ll see. So notice first what the leaders of the church don’t do in response to this contentious issue. They don’t tolerate false doctrine. Instead, they make it quite clear that the Judaizers have been operating without any authorization whatsoever from church leaders, which is rightly taken as a clear repudiation of the Judaizers. 

And there’s a lot we can learn from that—because many people nowadays have this idea that it’s okay to compromise key biblical teachings in the pursuit of unity. That’s a common sentiment in what’s often known as the ecumenical movement. Many times, it leads to downplaying the differences between different religions and trying to make the case that all religions actually teach the same basic message. Yet we see a much different approach in Acts 15. The church leaders refuse to tolerate any teaching that contradicts the gospel message of Jesus. 

And there’s an important principle we can glean from that. True unity is more than just the absence of conflict or external division. In order to be truly unified, there has to be something we’re unified around—something that brings us together. For example, think about a group of people standing together in an elevator. Are those people unified? Well, they may be occupying the same general space and not be fighting with each other or have any animosity toward each other, but I’m not sure we’d call them unified. It’s probably only by coincidence they’re even around each other. They just happen to be crossing paths. Some of them may even be thinking about how awkward it is to be in such close proximity with complete strangers. So even though there’s no conflict or division among them, it doesn’t seem appropriate to refer to them as unified—because, in order to have unity, there has to be something you’re unified around. 

And the thing that the early Christians were unified around—and that all true Christians from every era are unified around—is the Bible’s central message about Jesus that we call the gospel. This message in its most basic form is that we’ve sinned against God and deserve eternal judgement for our sins but that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. He came to save us. And the way he accomplished that was by dying on the cross to pay for our sins and then rising from the dead three days later. As a result, everyone who repents of their sin and puts their trust in him alone as their only hope for rescue will indeed be rescued by him and spend eternity in heaven. And that gospel message is what brings us together. That’s the source of our unity. And that’s why we find it impossible to speak of unity with any group that denies one or more core components of the gospel—even if that group claims to be a Christian group. If there’s not agreement on all the essential teachings of the gospel, then there is no unity—plain and simple. And that’s the mindset reflected here in Acts 15 as well. Unity is built on more than mere sentiment but is rather constructed on the solid foundation of gospel truth. 

However, the letter doesn’t stop there. Look at verses 25-29: 25 [I]t has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” 

So notice how sensitive the church leaders are to the cultural and ethnic tensions that exist in the church. They recognize that these tensions threaten the unity of the church, and therefore they instruct the predominantly Gentile—or non-Jewish—churches to avoid things that would offend Jewish sensibilities unnecessarily. The leaders of the church aren’t saying that following these instructions is necessary for salvation but simply that this is what’s needed in order to preserve the unity between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Now, the first three requirements of abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from what’s been strangled all relate to food laws in the Old Testament. Even though we’ve already seen in Acts that these food laws are no longer binding on anyone, many of the Jewish Christians still preferred to observe them anyway and were put off when Gentile Christians routinely violated them. 

Also, the leaders of the church instruct the Gentile churches abstain from sexual immorality, which might seem a bit strange at first since one would think that sexual immorality was prohibited anyway and wasn’t just a preference issue but rather was a sin issue. I believe the best explanation for why it’s in this letter is that the Gentile Christians had standards for sexual purity that were, we might say, a lot lower than the Jewish Christians. You have to remember that the Gentile Christians were saved out of pagan worship, which often involved some very shameless forms of sexual immorality. Temple priests and priestesses were often not much more than glorified prostitutes. So the leaders of the church were reminding the Gentile Christians to make sure that their lives were indeed free from any kind of sexual immorality—even things that they might not otherwise be quite as sensitive to. 

And the principle for unity that we can glean from all of this is that unity requires that we lay down our personal preferences for the sake of our Christian brothers and sisters. It requires that we put others above ourselves and consider their welfare before our own. You know, so often, especially as Americans, our first instinct is to insist on our rights. We don’t want anyone infringing on our rights. And even though that might be very appropriate when it comes to government legislation, that’s not the way we, as followers of Jesus, are called to relate to the individual people whom we encounter in the course of our daily lives. Christianity is about voluntarily laying down our rights and our preferences out of love for the people around us. Just to state it bluntly, if our church is going to continue to enjoy the unity we’ve enjoyed up to this point, it’s critical that we regularly lay down our own personal preferences for one another’s sake. After all, that’s what biblical love looks like. Biblical love involves recognizing that people are more important than our preferences. Let me say that again: people are more important than our preferences. Therefore, pursuing the welfare of the people around us should be a way higher priority than insisting on all of our personal preferences being observed. 

So, really, what this boils down to is that Christian unity requires Christian love. Christian unity requires Christian love. And the place where we see that love most clearly exemplified is in the gospel. In fact, in Philippians 2, as Paul’s exhorting the believers in Philippi to pursue unity through the renunciation of personal preferences, he explicitly links this kind of a mindset to what Jesus has done for us. Listen to what he writes in Philippians 2:1-8: 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. So again, unity involves renouncing selfish ambition, counting others more significant than ourselves, and looking not to our own interests but also to the interests of others. 

And where do we see this mindset? Paul continues, 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So, ultimately, we lay aside our preferences because Jesus laid aside his. We serve others because Jesus has served us. That’s what Paul instructs the Philippians to do in Philippians 2 and what church leaders instruct the churches to do back in Acts 15. 

And just to get super-practical with that, here are a few of the things that involves. Here’s what it looks like to count others more significant than ourselves and to put their preferences and their interests above our own. First, overlooking offenses committed against us whenever possible. Proverbs 10:12 states that “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” Instead of making a big deal about something that probably isn’t a big deal, just swallow your pride and overlook the offense. Forgive the person without even bringing up the issue to anybody. Of course, there are some situations where that’s not practical or advisable, but 90% of the time, that’s probably what you need to do. And second, follow the well-known adage of seeking first to understand, then to be understood. You know, I wonder how much conflict can be attributed simply to people not communicating well and not truly understanding each other. They’re so busy waxing eloquent about their own perspectives that they don’t invest sufficient effort into understanding the perspectives of those who see things differently. Listen: even if you don’t end up agreeing with the perspectives of others, simply taking the time to understand where they’re coming from is a very loving thing to do—and a very necessary thing to do in the context of a local church.

So take a moment and imagine a church where everyone does these things all the time. Just imagine what that would be like—a church where everyone’s eager to love and serve the people around them, to put the interests and preferences of others above their own interests and preferences, to simply overlook about 90% of offenses committed against them, and to seek to understand before seeking to be understood. I’m not saying it’s absolutely impossible for a church like that to experience dissension and turmoil, but it certainly seems close to impossible. It’s just hard to imagine a scenario where that kind of a church could experience conflict in a harmful way. So let’s strive to be that kind of a church. 

However, with that said, there will still be times when believers who are striving to love one another in all of these ways nevertheless find themselves unable to come to an agreement about certain issues. We actually see an example of this in our main passage in Acts 15:36-41. This takes place after the meeting in Jerusalem has ended. And it says, 36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. 

Now, there are various theories about why Mark deserted Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. Some commentators have suggested that perhaps the journey became too difficult and dangerous for Mark to tolerate. Others have suggested Mark resented Paul becoming the primary leader instead of Barnabas, who was Mark’s cousin. And still others have suggested that Mark disapproved of Paul’s passion to reach the Gentiles with the gospel instead of just focusing on the Jews. Yet, regardless of what Mark’s reason was for leaving his missionary companions, Paul thought it was a very bad reason—so bad that Paul had no desire to take Mark along with them on another missionary journey. However, Barnabas sharply disagreed and insisted that Mark be allowed to come along with them. So as a result, Paul and Barnabas ended up parting ways. 

And sometimes, that’s the way things are. There are times when believers disagree about something, and, despite their best efforts, they can’t resolve their disagreement. So how do we work through those kinds of issues? More specifically, how do we distinguish between situations in which we can simply agree to disagree and situations in which some sort of separation is necessary? 

Well, I’m glad you asked. The way I recommend approaching this is through something that’s often called “theological triage.” Those of you who have been through the Membership Information Class probably recognize that phrase. It’s kind of like what you’d find in an emergency room. As you know, if you were to go to an emergency room with some type of a medical issue, they’re going to prioritize you based on how urgent your issue is. Like if you’re going in there because you think you broke your finger and someone else shows up shortly after you who’s been shot in the stomach, I’m pretty sure they’re going to help that other person before they help you. That’s called triage. And that’s essentially what we have to do with various doctrinal and ethical issues that we disagree on as well.

And there are three levels of this theological triage. The first level is what we might call “gospel issues.” These are issues that are necessary for us to agree on in order to have the spiritual unity that we talked about earlier and view each other as true brothers and sisters in the faith. These include issues like the Trinity, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and being saved by faith alone. And if anybody has an unbiblical view on one of these gospel issues, we can’t really consider that person to be a Christian. 

Then, after that, we might call the second category “membership issues.” These are issues that we require agreement on in order for someone to become a member of the church—things like infant baptism, the role of women in ministry, and not being able to lose our salvation. Now, unlike the first category, we’re not saying that people who disagree with us about these things aren’t Christians. They may love the Lord every bit as much as we do. But we require that everyone in the church hold the same view on these issues—or at least agree to support the teaching of our church on these issues—so that our church can move forward in a healthy and productive manner and also be protected from certain beliefs that we view as exceptionally harmful. 

Then finally, after gospel issues and membership issues, the third category is “personal opinions.” And those would be…well…everything else. If it’s not a gospel issue or a membership issue, then by default it’s in this third category of personal opinions. Examples include issues related to a chronology of the end times, speaking in tongues, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, and various ethical issues such as the consumption of alcohol and how to observe the Lord’s Day properly and whether parents should homeschool their kids. None of these kinds of issues should divide our church. Of course, that’s not to say they’re not important, it’s just to say that we shouldn’t let these kinds of things disrupt our unity or our fellowship. Now, just to be clear, it’s okay to politely try to convince others in the church to adopt our views about these issues and even to have robust discussions about these things at times, but it’s not okay for us to imply that those who don’t end up adopting our views are somehow less Christian or less devoted as Christians. 

So that’s our system of theological triage: gospel issues, membership issues, and personal opinions. And, by the way, the way you can tell which category something is in is by our church’s official doctrinal statement. Basically, if it’s in the doctrinal statement, it’s either a gospel issue or a membership issue. And if it’s not in the doctrinal statement, that means we consider it to be a personal opinion and respectfully ask you not create division over that issue. 

Because, brothers and sisters, please understand that Jesus wants us to be unified and is grieved when we’re not. Just read his famous prayer to the Father in John 17. What was his main request? Was it not that his people would be one just as he and the Father are one? And on top of that, Jesus also made it clear elsewhere that our love for each other as Christians is a central component of our evangelistic witness to the world. He states in John 13:34-35, 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So, as you can see, in order to persuasively tell people about the love of Jesus with our lips, we have to be demonstrating the love of Jesus toward one another in our lives. Otherwise, our witness is just empty words. 

And, finally, let me make one concluding observation related to that. If there are a lot of silly disagreements and needless divisiveness going on in a church, then that’s a sign that the people of that church probably aren’t very engaged in the mission Jesus has given us of sharing the gospel and making disciples. Think about an army. When do problems arise between soldiers within the same army? It’s when they’re just sitting around and not doing much of anything, right? Yet, when the soldiers are actively fighting in a battle, things are a lot different, of course. They don’t have time for minor skirmishes within their own ranks—they’re too busy fighting the battle. Likewise, if you’re truly engaged in the mission Jesus has given you as a Christian and seeking to embody your missionary calling, in my experience, you just don’t have for disagreements with other Christians about silly things. You’re too busy building friendships with those who aren’t Christians yet and praying for them and seeking to share the gospel with them and starting evangelistic Bible studies to worry about differences of opinion between you and other Christians about lower-level doctrinal issues. 

So let’s challenge ourselves in that way this morning. Let’s take all of the energy that might otherwise be directed toward silly, needless disagreements and channel that energy into our God-given calling of being missionaries here in the greater Pittsburgh area. We’ll have plenty of time to figure everything else out when we get to heaven, but for now, let’s use the precious few years that Jesus has given us on this earth to make an impact on others with the gospel that will last for all eternity.