Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 15:20

"but that we write unto them, that they abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood." — Acts 15:20 (ASV)

On the practical question that troubled many Christians in Jerusalem and that originally gave rise to the Judaizers’ assertion—namely, the question of fellowship between Jews and Gentiles in the church and of tolerance for the scruples of others—James’s advice was that a letter be written to the Gentile Christians. This letter should request them to abstain “from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” These prohibitions have often been viewed as a compromise between two warring parties, which nullified the effect of James’s earlier words and made the decision of the Jerusalem Council unacceptable to Paul. But in reality they should be viewed not as dealing with the principial issue of the council but as meeting certain practical concerns. They were not primarily theological but more sociological in nature—concessions to the scruples of others for the sake of harmony within the church and the continuance of the Jewish Christian mission. Therefore James added the rationale of v.21, suggesting that since Jewish communities are found in every city, their scruples are to be respected by Gentile believers.

To sum up, we may say that two types of “necessary” questions were raised at the Jerusalem Council. The first had to do with the theological necessity of circumcision and the Jewish law for salvation, and that was rejected. The second had to do with the practical necessity of Gentile Christians to abstain from certain practices for the sake of Jewish-Gentile fellowship in the church and the Jewish Christian mission throughout the Diaspora, and that was approved.