Acts 21:15-40 - Homiletics

The compromise.

The introduction of Christianity into the world while the temple was still standing, and the Law of Moses with all its Levitical and ceremonial ordinances was still in force, might have issued in three ways.

1. All converts to the faith of Jesus Christ from among the Gentiles might have been forced to become Jews, as far as submission to the whole Law was concerned.

2. Or the Old Testament might then and there have been superseded by the New, and the Jewish believers as well as the Gentile converts have been brought at once into the possession of Christian liberty and immunity from the whole body of ceremonial observances.

3. Or it might have been provided that, while Jewish believers were still subject to the Law of Moses, those who believed from among the Gentiles should be wholly free from the bondage of the Law, and only subject to the institutions and precepts of Christ. The first of these issues was that which was contended for by the bigoted Jews of Jerusalem. They wished that all Christians should be as it were proselytes to Moses, only with the addition of faith in Jesus as the promised and long looked-for Christ. The second seems to be that toward which St. Paul's own opinion gravitated, and which the inexorable logic of the forcible suppression of the Mosaic institutions by the destruction of Jerusalem confirmed as being according to the mind of God. The third was a compromise between the two former. And it was a compromise accepted by St. Paul. In deference to the prejudices of the Jewish people, and in a charitable consideration for opinions and feelings which were almost a part of their being, he was willing that the Christian Jews should still observe the laws and customs of their fathers, provided that the Gentile disciples were left absolutely flee. And he was willing as a Jew himself to conform to his brethren's practice in this matter. Whatever may have been his speculative opinion, he was willing to give to the Jewish community the public proof asked for by St. James, that "he himself also walked orderly and kept the Law," and actually joined the four Nazarites in their vow and was at charges with them, and went through the legal ceremonies in the temple with them (verse 26, and Acts 24:18 ; Acts 25:8 ). The practical lesson, therefore, plainly is that compromises are lawful and right, provided no essential truth is sacrificed. In the diversity of the human mind, and the diversity of influences to which different minds are subject, it frequently happens, as a matter of fact, that conscientious and upright men, who agree upon many vital and essential truths, disagree upon others which are less important, disagree sharply and pointedly. If both parties are to maintain their own views with unbending rigidity, there can be no common action, no harmony, no peace. A compromise by which both parties, without giving up their own belief, agree to keep the points of difference in the background, and to concede something to each other in practice, is the only possible way of preserving unity and concord. It is the way sanctioned and recommended by the great example of St. Paul. Only we must not forget to notice the further instructive lesson conveyed by this section, that the most laudable and best-planned efforts at conciliation are often doomed to failure by the unreasonable and fanatical violence of those who are most in the wrong. Compromises imply a measure of humility and a sincere love of peace. Where there is an arrogant assumption of infallibility, and an overbearing spirit of domination, men prefer the forcing their own opinion upon others to an equitable compromise, and love subjugation more than peace. The highest wisdom and most exalted piety will propose concessions, which fanatical bigotry will fling back in their teeth. It is in religion as in politics. There will always be a party of irreconcilables. A St. Paul in the depth of his love may offer a compromise to which the Jewish fanatic in his blind bigotry will reply by blows and conspiracies unto death. And yet in the end the love will triumph, and the violence will be laid in the dust.

HOMILIES BY W. Clarkson