Ep 422– Acts 15:22-41

Getting along with others is not easy, even in the best of times. Families where love for one another is a high priority can still find themselves struggling with unity and battling over things like rights and personal preferences. In Acts 15:22-41, we are going to see that conflicts and disunity were a constant problem in the early church. The increasingly diverse makeup of the growing church was creating natural tensions and disagreements. Debates were becoming increasingly more common, even among the leadership. But through it all, there was a strong desire on the part of the apostles to maintain a spirit of unity in the midst of all the diversity. That is exactly what Jesus had prayed would happen. The members of the church in the first-century were under a great deal of pressure. They faced ongoing and increasing opposition from the Jews as well as the pagans. Their presence in the community was seen as a threat to existing religions and even to the social fabric of the society. Christianity was disruptive, turning entire cities upside-down and creating an unnecessary and unwanted stress on the status quo. And the fledgling congregations felt the tension. Many of the members of the local churches had been cut off from their families because of their faith. Others had lost their jobs. Those who had walked away from pagan religions were ostracized by their former friends. And all of them were having to learn the delicate task of getting along with those with whom their only source of commonality was their faith in Christ.