John Calvin Commentary Acts 15:28

"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:" — Acts 15:28 (ASV)

It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us. While the apostles and elders align themselves with the Holy Ghost, they attribute nothing to themselves independently in this; rather, this statement implies that the Holy Ghost was the captain, guide, and governor, and that they set down and decreed what they wrote as He dictated it to them.

For this way of speaking is commonly used in Scripture, to give ministers the second place after the name of God has been expressed. When it is said that the people believed God and his servant Moses (Exodus 14:31), faith is not divided, as if it devoted itself partly to God and partly to a mortal man.

What then? Specifically, since the people had God as the sole author of their faith, they believed His minister, from whom He could not be separated. Nor could they believe God in any other way than by believing the doctrine presented to them by Moses, just as they shook off the yoke of God after they had once rejected and despised Moses.

By this, the wickedness of those people is also refuted, who, while loudly boasting of faith, no less wickedly than proudly despise the ministry. For, just as it would be a sacrilegious division if faith should depend even a very little upon man, so those people openly mock God who pretend that they have Him as their teacher when they disregard the ministers through whom He speaks.

Therefore, the apostles deny that they invented from their own minds the decree that they deliver to the Gentiles, but affirm that they were only ministers of the Spirit, so that with the authority of God they might commend those things which, proceeding from Him, they faithfully deliver. So, when Paul mentions his gospel, he does not impose upon them a new gospel of his own invention, but he preaches that which was committed to him by Christ.

And the Papists are foolish who attempt, from these words, to prove that the Church has some authority of her own; indeed, they contradict themselves. For, under what pretext do they assert that the Church cannot err, except because it is founded directly by the Holy Spirit? Therefore, they loudly proclaim that those things are the oracles of the Spirit which we show to be their own inventions. Therefore, they foolishly argue this point, it seemed good to us; because, if the apostles decreed anything separately from the Spirit, that principal maxim—that Councils decree nothing but what is dictated by the Spirit—will fail.

Besides these necessary things. The Papists eagerly triumph under the pretext of this word, as if it was lawful for men to make laws that may impose necessity upon the conscience. That (they say) which the Church commands must be kept under pain of mortal sin, because the apostles say that what they decree must necessarily be observed.

But such a futile objection is quickly answered. For this necessity extended no further than the danger that unity might be severed. So that, strictly speaking, this necessity was accidental or external, not inherent in the thing itself, but existing only in avoiding offense, which appears more plainly from the abolishing of the decree.

For laws made concerning things that are inherently necessary must be perpetual. But we know that this law was abolished by Paul as soon as the tumult and contention had ended, when he teaches that nothing is unclean (Romans 14:14), and when he grants liberty to eat all kinds of foods, indeed, even such as were sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 10:25).

Therefore, they try in vain to find any pretext or justification in this word to bind men’s consciences, seeing that the necessity spoken of in this place only concerned people in their external practice, lest any offense should arise from it, and so that their liberty before God might remain intact and complete.

Also, they try in vain to infer from this entire passage, and in vain do they attempt to prove from it, that the Church had power given to decree anything contrary to the word of God. The Pope has made such laws as seemed best to himself, contrary to the word of God, by which he intended to govern the Church—and not ten or twenty, but an infinite number—so that they not only tyrannically oppress souls but are also cruel torments to distress and afflict them.

So that the Pope’s hired quibblers might excuse such cruelty, they object that even the apostles forbade the Gentiles that which was not forbidden in the word of God. But I say unequivocally that the apostles added nothing to the word of God, which will plainly appear if we wish to understand their intention. I recently said that they certainly did not intend to establish a perpetual law by which they might bind the faithful. What then? They used a remedy suitable for nurturing brotherly peace and concord among the Churches, so that the Gentiles might for a time adapt to the Jews. But if we are to grant anything, we must assuredly confess that this is according to the word of God: that love prevails in indifferent matters; that is, that the external use of those things which are inherently free should be directed towards the rule of charity.

In short, if love is the bond of perfection and the end of the law, if God commands that we strive to preserve mutual unity among ourselves, and that each person should serve his neighbor for edification, no one is so ignorant that they do not see that what the apostles command in this place is contained in the word of God; they are only applying a general rule to their time.

Furthermore, let us remember what I said before: that it was a prudential law which could not ensnare the conscience, nor introduce any false worship of God—two vices the Scripture everywhere condemns in human traditions. But even if we were to grant (which is utterly false) that what was decreed in that council did not accord with the word of God, that still does not support the Papists.

Let councils decree anything beyond the express word of God, according to the revelation of the Spirit; yet only lawful councils can be given this authority. Then let them prove that their councils were godly and holy, to whose decrees they want us to be subject.

But I will not discuss this point any further, because it was discussed in the beginning of the chapter. Let the readers know (which is sufficient for now) that the apostles do not go beyond the bounds of the word of God when they establish an external law, as the situation requires, by which they might reconcile the Churches among themselves.