When Paul arrives in Jerusalem, he recounts the exciting news of all God has done as he traveled the Mediterranean basin sharing the gospel. And then he hears some bad news…people have been gossiping about his ministry.
Believers who are zealous for keeping the Law (ethnic and cultural Jews) have been scandalized having
“been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs (Acts 21:21).”
While it is true that Paul did not require Gentiles (non-Jews) to begin keeping the Law there is no indication in Acts that he has told Jewish believers to stop keeping it. In fact, Acts 16:3 recounts how Paul had his protégé Timothy circumcised precisely because one of his parents was Jewish and Paul did not want to cause offense to the Jewish believers they would encounter.
Nevertheless, the story making the rounds is that Paul has been teaching Jewish believers to forsake the old ways.
James and the other leaders of the church in Jerusalem propose a plan to show the world Paul keeps the Law and he agrees to their proposal (Acts 21:22-24).
We will discover tomorrow what happens next but, sad to say, the results will reveal that gossip once shared takes on a life of its own and can have tragic consequences.
