Daily writing prompt

Do you practice religion?

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Rather than following religious rules, leaders, hierarchy, or organizations, I strive to follow and obey the risen Jesus Christ. I listen to His still, small voice in my heart. I actively resist my own desires, feelings, and opinions so I can more freely do what He tells me to. I read the Bible with an open heart asking God’s Spirit to speak to me from its pages and to make its words burn within me. This post explains how I try to get God’s message from the Bible, not my own or the message of any particular church or denomination.

Timothy, the Holy Spirit, and the Letter from Jerusalem’s “Esteemed Leaders”

The message sent from the “sent ones” (apostles) and spiritually mature older believers (elders) in Jerusalem was written in a letter that is recorded in Acts 15:23-29. In Acts 16:1-5, Paul is delivering that letter’s message in the small towns of Derby and Lystra. The message said that Gentle Christians were not to be burdened with any of the Jewish ritual laws “beyond the following requirements. You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.”

That message meant that Gentile believers didn’t need to be circumcised. Yet Paul, when he wanted to invite Timothy (who was uncircumcised) to travel with him “circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area.” Then “they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.”

What a mystery? Why did Paul circumcise Timothy in order to satisfy the Jewish believers in the area at the same time he was delivering the message that Gentile Christians didn’t need to be circumcised?

In the next section (Acts 16:6-10) we see that the Holy Spirit was actually preventing Paul and Timothy from preaching in certain places until Paul had a vision that told them to preach in Macedonia: “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia . . . After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

It appears that Paul trusted the Holy Spirit and followed the Spirit’s leadings more than he trusted and followed human leaders. Here is another example: Speaking about food offered to idols, Paul says: “We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” (See 1 Corinthians 8:8.) Because of that Paul could write this in Romans 14:15-21: “If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”

Here Paul explains how he saw the “esteemed leaders in Jerusalem. “I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message.” (Galatians 2:1-6.) Since Paul states that he sees all Christ-followers as equally favored by God, he doesn’t appear to recognize the leaders in Jerusalem as a religious hierarchy or clergy class having authority over him.

It is interesting that Paul goes on to add something that isn’t included in the Jerusalem letter at all: “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” (Galatians 2:10.) (They must have asked this separately.)

Jesus Himself, said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28.) I believe that Scriptures show that Jesus wants the members of his body to be Spirit-led, not hierarchy led. Paul said: “As many as are led by the Spirit are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14.)

Here is Paul’s summary: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:13:18.)

In Ephesians 4, when Paul talks about training the saints (all believers) for the work of the ministry, he is referring to giftings (or functions), not official offices. Wherever I look in the New Testament I see leadership in the body of Christ coming from servanthood and humility, not from hierarchy. I think it is urgent for the body of Christ to make Jesus the literal actively functioning Head, not just a figurehead.

Paul didn’t just blindly follow what leadership said. He did what the Holy Spirit said. Search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia. Also search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.