Thursday 19 May 2022

May 19: Acts 15:12-21

Key Verse: Acts 15:17
that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things”

Devotion:
Have you ever wondered if God could ever love you? Have you ever wondered why God should love you because you come from a family of non-Christians? Well, I hope these words encourage you to seek God and to allow Him to open your heart to what He can do in your life...

Peter gave quite a convincing argument why the Gentiles should be allowed to come to God because of all the miracles and things which had happened in and around the Gentile places. This would not have been able to happen if God was not reaching out to them – instead they saw just how much God could reach out to anyone who is willing to listen. Barnabas and Paul joined in to tell of more things which had happened…

Then James stood up and reminded the Jews of the scriptures; those very same scriptures which they upheld to exclude other people from their religion! The prophet Amos had written these words down hundreds of years before Christ came to be amongst us, way before people actively excluded the Gentiles from everything.

God is willing to accept any person who is willing to call themselves a Christian; to say they are a believer and they know why Jesus came to live and die for us. Nobody has been excluded by what Jesus did, rather He opened the doors for everyone to be able to draw closer to Him. With that being said, James declared the Jews should not ascribe the Jewish laws to the Gentiles but to allow them to love God their own way. That being said, he did say even the Gentiles should abstain from food polluted by idols, avoid sexual immorality and a few other things because those laws were for everyone.

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to keep God’s commandments?

Will you allow Christ to guide you through the commandments?