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Acts 21:17–26
“Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them” (v. 26).
Carrying financial assistance from the gentile churches to the church in Jerusalem, Paul finally arrived in the Holy City, as we read in today’s passage (Acts 21:17; see Rom. 15:25–26). Luke reports that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem received Paul and his traveling companions with gladness. Paul and those who were journeying with him met with the elders of the Jerusalem church, including James, the brother of Jesus, and those men rejoiced when they heard about all that God had been doing to save the gentiles through Paul’s ministry (Acts 21:17–20a).
From the Jerusalem elders, the Apostle learned of unease in the community of Jewish Christians in the city, which numbered well into the thousands. Some people had been spreading rumors that Paul was telling Jewish Christians who lived in gentile areas that they should “forsake Moses” and not practice circumcision and other Jewish customs (vv. 20b–21). Jewish believers in Christ were understandably alarmed to hear that they had to abandon all aspects of their culture, especially when so many of their traditions had been given to them by God Himself. Knowing that these rumors about Paul were certainly false, James and the elders proposed a way to assuage the fears of the other Jewish Christians. Paul would join four of the Jewish Christian men as they fulfilled a vow, purifying himself along with them and paying their expenses. This act of solidarity would allay the fears of Paul’s fellow Jewish Christians and was not something they would impose upon the gentiles (vv. 22–25).
The Jewish Christians had likely made a Nazirite vow, which required shaving the head and offering several sacrifices (see Num. 6:1–21). Paying for these costly sacrifices would demonstrate the ongoing commitment of Paul to his Jewish heritage and that he did not demand that Jewish Christians abandon all their cultural practices. Paul went with the Jewish Christian men as suggested, purifying himself and helping the others fulfill their vow (Acts 21:26).
It is not strange that Paul would go along with this suggestion even though he had been decisively cleansed in Christ. Paul was willing to go to great lengths to maintain goodwill among the Jews so that he might still have opportunity “to win Jews” to Christ (1 Cor. 9:20). Many of the Jews’ rituals were bound up with their ethnic identity, and Paul wasn’t denying that Christ had come. He was simply navigating Jewish culture in a discerning way.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Gentiles do not have to become Jews to be Christians and Jews do not have to become gentiles to be Christians. Thus, Paul and other Jews were free to maintain many of their Jewish practices as elements of their heritage while they trusted in Christ alone. Christians are required to abandon only the sinful aspects of their native cultures, not necessarily everything about those cultures.
For further study
- Judges 13
- Acts 18:18
- 1 Corinthians 9:19–23
- Galatians 2:1–10
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 4–6
- Galatians 3