Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 15:19

"Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them that from among the Gentiles turn to God;" — Acts 15:19 (ASV)

On the basic issue that brought the members of the first ecumenical council together—that of the necessity of relating Gentiles to Judaism in the Christian mission—James refused to side with the Judaizers. He may not have been prepared to endorse openly all the details of Paul’s Gentile policy. Certainly there is no indication that he expected the Jerusalem church to do that. But he could not be in opposition to the express will of God, and therefore his advice was that Jewish Christianity should not take any stance against the promotion of the Gentile mission. In so concluding, he swept aside the obstacles that had arisen to Paul’s Gentile mission among believers at Jerusalem and left it free for further advances within the empire.