Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 15:8

"And God, who knoweth the heart, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us;" — Acts 15:8 (ASV)

Peter was no longer the chief figure of the Jerusalem church, for James had now assumed that role (cf. comment on 12:17). But Peter was dominant in the Jewish Christian mission and responsible to the Jerusalem church. And it is as a missionary, not an administrator, that he spoke up and reminded the council that God had chosen to have the Gentiles hear the Gospel from him and accept it. He argued that since God had established such a precedent within the Jewish Christian mission some ten years earlier—though it had not been recognized by the church as such—God has already indicated his approval of a direct Gentile outreach. Thus Paul’s approach to the Gentiles could not be branded as a deviation from the divine will. Peter had evidently completely recovered from his temporary lapse at Syrian Antioch. Now he saw matters more clearly and was ready to agree with Paul’s position that there is “no difference” between Jews and Gentiles and that the Mosaic law was a “yoke.”