It takes time, but we need to keep growing.

S: Acts 15

O: A lot of Pharisees actually believed in Jesus. They were already primed to believe in Jesus because of their belief in the resurrection of the dead, unlike the Sadducees. Unfortunately, most of them, unlike Saul/Paul, did not then realise that they did not need those strict interpretations of the Mosaic Law any more, which is why they became the Judaisers who dogged Paul and the early church.

After a person gets saved, a lot of their ways of thinking do change, but not everything. People still retain their pre-Christian beliefs, and it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work through them.

Fortunately, the apostles and elders realised that they should not be imposing Mosaic Law on the new Gentile believers, and just asked them to observe a few basic rules that were seen as particularly important for maintaining fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers.

The prohibitions on eating meat sacrificed to idols, consuming blood, and eating animals that had been strangled (which likely made the blood harder to drain) were likely aimed at maintaining harmony between Gentile and Jewish Christians. These practices were a significant part of Jewish dietary laws, and avoiding them helped prevent unnecessary friction between the two groups.

While these rules were important for the early church’s unity, especially given the cultural and religious differences between Jewish and Gentile believers, most theologians agree that they were not meant as permanent, universal injunctions for all Christians throughout history. They were situational, tied to the specific issues of the early church, and were primarily intended to ensure that Gentile believers respected Jewish customs, particularly as those customs related to idolatry and ritual purity.

Therefore, while these practices were important at the time, many Christians today do not view them as binding in the same way as other parts of the moral law, such as prohibitions against sexual immorality.

A: As the Holy Spirit brings up areas that we need to improve on, we need to revise our practices that we may have continued from our old lives. So we need to be open to that, as Psalm 139:23-24 says:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

P: Father, grow the fruit of the Spirit in me as I walk with you – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In Jesus’ name, amen.