Basics Remain

Acts 15:20-21 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
 
THE apostle James confirmed circumcision was not necessary for Gentiles. Then he exhorted the apostles and all to continue teaching three essential prohibitions of Moses’ law: Reject food polluted by idols. Do not eat meat with blood. Stop sexual immorality – fornication. Why did James focus on these three?
   Regarding the idol meat, the custom of many people in the Roman Empire was to have banquets in buildings dedicated to the various Roman gods. Many people would not know this is a moral problem because it was a common practice. Eating food that had been dedicated to an idol would indicate one worshiped that false deity. Christians are to worship God only. Habits and traditions guide our lives. We must often stop to determine if the things we do in any way reject God’s moral laws and principles.
   The command against eating blood dates back to God’s law to Noah after the Flood: Genesis 9:4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” This was spoken long before the law at Sinai. Yet, it remained in force in the new church.
   Third, to reject sexual immorality refers to fornication. This was so common in the first century culture it was accepted as common morality. Does that sound familiar? Premarital sex is sin, and we need to stand against its common acceptance now. The faithful Jews knew this sin was the beginning of their ancestors’ destruction in the Promised Land. Even before they reached Canaan, Israel’s men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. (Numbers 25:1-2) One sin leads to another, and soon evil becomes good. It is written sixteen times in the New Testament Jesus and the apostles specifically condemned this. One example is when Paul admonished the church at Corinth: The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. (1 Corinthians 6:13b)
   We know fornication and eating food used for idol worship remained a great problem in the early church. In his vision to John, Jesus admonishes the church in Thyatira: Revelation 2:20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
   Discipling one another to know and live God’s truth requires persistent effort to understand what God tells us is wrong and what is right.