Unity Without Uniformity
I find this whole scene fascinating.
Paul arrives in Jerusalem and goes to see the leader of the church: James, the brother of Jesus. James and the others tell Paul that the rumor in Jerusalem is that he is telling folks not to obey the Law, i.e., the Old Testament teaching that set Jews apart from the nations. The implication here is important—James takes for granted that it is a good thing for Jewish Christians to continue to observe Jewish ethnic practices. In order for Paul to show that he is in fact still an observant Jew, James and the others tell him it would be a good idea to observe the practice of 7 day purification before he visits the Temple, and that it would be a nice touch for him to pay for the purification of a few other men as well. Paul does as they suggest.
One of the important conclusions we can draw from here is one I’ve been obsessed with recently, namely that in the early church, Jewish Christians kept being Jewish and Gentile Christians kept being Gentile and they were all united in the Messiah Jesus.
Unity without uniformity.
Imagine what that might look like today.