Learning Curve
Max Craddock

            Learning something new is sometimes a great challenge. This may be because one has always done something in a particular way and is comfortable doing so. While I have not had to do so, I believe learning to drive on the left side of the street would be very challenging. Changing one’s beliefs about serving God can also provide for challenge when overcoming early learning and tradition.

            Consider the problem for the first converts to Christ. We read of their difficulty in Acts 15. “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.  So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses" (Acts 15:1 – 5 ESV). Some of the Jews who had become believers were still troubled by their past. They appear to have held on to the conviction that some of the issues of the old law (law given through Moses) needed to continue to be followed and also be required in the spiritual life of the Gentile converts. These convictions were long held and had been passed down from generation to generation. Circumcision, in particular, was the sign of the covenant between God and the Jews. They had to learn that the old law was fulfilled and the physical circumcision of the flesh, a sign between God and the Jews, was replaced by the spiritual circumcision of the heart, a sign between God and all mankind.
            Peter presents to those assembled that he, by God’s guidance, had delivered the message of salvation to the Gentiles, saying that God had shown acceptance of them by giving the Holy Spirit. There was no distinction between the Jews and Gentiles was Peter’s conclusion. Following this, Barnabas and Paul related how they had done signs and wonders among the Gentiles by the blessing and power of God. Finally, James gave a suggestion that “Seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” with the following message, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell’" (Acts 15:22, 28, 29 ESV).
            No doubt it took a long time for the “Jewish” Christians to begin to be comfortable with this new relationship for themselves and with the “Gentile” Christians. They had to grow in their learning, understanding and accepting the new plan of God. Thankfully, many did...sadly, many did not.
            Their experience is not that much different than ours. We must learn to accept, as final, the word of God because His word takes precedence over every religious, cultural or family tradition of man.