Acts 21:15 - Meaning and Application

On this journey to Jerusalem, Paul went from Caesarea with those who stayed by him. They packed their belongings and, it seems, carried their own bags like poor travelers or soldiers. They had so little extra clothing that one might say all they had was what they carried on their backs. Some think they also carried the money collected in Macedonia and Achaia for the poor believers in Jerusalem.

If they could have persuaded Paul to take another route, they would have gladly gone with him. But when he still chose to go to Jerusalem, they did not leave him to go alone. Like Thomas when Jesus was going toward danger in Jerusalem, they were ready to go with him and die with him if needed (John 11:16). Their loyalty to Paul was like Ittai’s loyalty to David, when he said, “Wherever my lord the king may be, whether in life or in death, there also your servant will be” (2 Samuel 15:21). Paul’s courage stirred courage in them.

Some of the believers from Caesarea also went with them. We are not told whether they were already planning to travel and simply took the chance to go with such good company, or whether they came on purpose to help Paul. They may have hoped to keep him out of trouble, or at least comfort him in it. Since Paul’s freedom was likely to be short, they made use of every moment they could spend with him. Elisha stayed close to Elijah when he knew the time was near for Elijah to be taken up.

They also brought with them an honest older man named Mnason from Cyprus, who had a house in Jerusalem and was glad to host Paul and his company (Acts 21:16). Because so many people came to Jerusalem for the feast, it was hard to find lodging. Public inns were taken by the wealthier travelers, and people with private homes were expected to welcome strangers. Mnason was willing to receive Paul, even though he knew it might bring trouble on anyone who sheltered him. Still, Paul and his companions were welcome.

Mnason is called an old disciple, meaning he had been a believer for a long time. Some think he was one of the seventy disciples, one of the first converts after the Holy Spirit was poured out, or one of the earliest believers made in Cyprus (Acts 13:4). However it was, he was both old in years and old in faith. It is an honor to be an old disciple of Jesus Christ, to keep walking faithfully for many years, and to grow wiser and steadier with age. A person like that is a good one to stay with, because many years in God’s service teach wisdom.

When Paul reached Jerusalem, many of the brothers welcomed him gladly (Acts 21:17). As soon as they heard he had arrived, they came to Mnason’s house to greet him. They were glad to see him safe and honored to know such a devoted servant of Christ. The same word used here for their welcome is also used earlier for the way people gladly received the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:41). We may think we would gladly receive Paul if he came among us, but the real question is whether we gladly receive the doctrine he taught.

The next day, Paul went with James and took the rest of his companions with him to meet the church leaders in Jerusalem (Acts 21:18). James, the brother of the Lord and now the only apostle living there, was present, along with the elders, the regular pastors who preached and governed the church. Paul greeted them all, showed them respect, asked after their welfare, and gave them the right hand of fellowship. To greet someone in this way was to wish them health and blessing, something very fitting among Christians who love one another and honor God together.

Paul then told them in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry (Acts 21:19). He spoke carefully and modestly. He did not say what he had done, since he was only the instrument, but what God had done by his ministry. He knew it was not he himself, but the grace of God with him. He had planted and watered, but God gave the growth. By telling the story in detail, he made God’s grace stand out even more clearly in every part of his success.

When they heard it, they praised the Lord (Acts 21:20). Paul gave the credit to God, and they gave the praise to God as well. They did not heap praise on Paul, but left it to his Master to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” They glorified God for his grace shown to the Gentiles. The conversion of sinners should fill us with joy and praise, just as it does the angels. God had given Paul a wider field of usefulness than the others, but they did not envy him or resent his growing honor. Instead, they glorified the Lord, and that was the best way to encourage Paul to keep working gladly.

James and the elders of the church in Jerusalem were asking Paul for advice, really, that he would please the Jewish believers by showing some respect for the ceremonial law. They wanted him to appear publicly in the temple and offer a sacrifice. That act was not sinful in itself, because the ceremonial law was not to be forced on Gentile converts, as the false teachers wanted, but it was not yet unlawful for Jews who had been raised under it and did not look to it for justification, meaning being made right with God. The law was no longer binding in the same way, but it had not yet become forbidden for personal use. Since the act itself was not sinful, they thought it would be wise for Paul to go along that far.

Notice the spirit of their advice to Paul. They were not claiming authority over him, but speaking out of affection. They asked him to think about the many Jewish believers in Jerusalem: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe.” They called him brother because they saw him as a fellow worker in the gospel. Though they came from the circumcision party and Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, though they were more conformist and he was less so, they still owned one another as brothers.

They also wanted Paul to see how great the work of grace had been among the Jews. The word used here can mean not just thousands, but tens of thousands. Even among the Jews, who were strongly opposed to the gospel, many had received it, because God’s grace can break Satan’s strongest strongholds. At the beginning, the church had only about 120 people, but now there were many thousands. No one should despise the day of small beginnings, because God can make the end grow greatly. This was also proof that God had not completely cast off his people, the Jews, because among them there was still a remnant, an elect people, who believed (Romans 11:1, Romans 11:5, Romans 11:7). Paul would likely have welcomed this news just as gladly as they had welcomed his news about Gentile conversions, because his heart’s desire and prayer for the Jews was that they might be saved.

They then told Paul about a weakness that still remained among these Jewish believers, something they had not yet fully outgrown. “They are all zealous for the law.” They believed in Christ as the true Messiah, trusted his righteousness, and submitted to his rule. Still, they knew the law of Moses came from God, and they had found real spiritual benefit in keeping its ceremonies. So they could not easily imagine letting it go, or even growing less attached to it. Perhaps they even argued that since Christ was made under the law and kept it, this was a reason for them to continue under it too. This was a serious weakness and mistake, because they were clinging to shadows after the reality had come, and keeping their necks under a yoke of bondage when Christ had come to set them free.

At the same time, we should see two things here. First, long habits and early education have great power, especially when they are tied to a ceremonial law. Second, charity requires that we make allowances for such weaknesses. These Jewish believers were not to be rejected as no Christians simply because they were zealous for the law, as long as they did not force it on others. Their zeal could be understood in a good way, and it could also be excused, given how they had been raised and the company they kept.

They also wanted Paul to know that these law-zealous Jews were against him, as Acts 21:21 shows. Paul, though a faithful servant of Christ, could not win the approval of everyone in Christ’s family. They had heard reports about him and judged him by them. The accusation was that he not only did not teach Gentiles to keep the law, which some had wanted him to do, but that he also taught all the Jews among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, not to circumcise their children, and not to follow the customs of their nation. Those customs were divinely appointed, as far as they could still be observed even away from the temple, such as the church’s fasts and feasts, their phylacteries, and their avoidance of unclean food.

Now, this charge was partly true and partly false. It was true that Paul preached the ending of the law of Moses as a way of being justified, meaning made right with God. So believers were no longer bound to keep it. But it was false that he taught people to abandon Moses altogether. His message did not destroy the law, but fulfill it. He preached Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness, and he preached repentance and faith, in which we still make good use of the law. The Jews among the Gentiles whom Paul taught did not forsake Moses. In fact, they understood him better than ever when they learned to use him as a guide leading them to Christ.

Still, the believing Jews had come to think that Paul was against Moses, and they may also have listened too much to unbelieving Jews. That made them angry with Paul. The elders present, who were their ministers, loved and respected him, called him brother, and approved his work. But the people could hardly be led to think well of him. The less wise people are, the more quick they are to criticize. They could not rightly judge Paul’s teaching, so they condemned it in a broad way out of ignorance.

For that reason, they asked Paul to do something public now that he had come to Jerusalem, something that would show the charge against him was false. He did not teach people to forsake Moses or break the customs of the Jewish church, because he still used them himself. They decided that some public act was needed. “What then? What should be done? The crowd will hear that you have come to town.” Fame has this trouble attached to it, that a famous person’s coming and going are noticed more than other people’s, and talked about, sometimes out of goodwill and sometimes out of ill will.

When they heard that Paul had arrived, they would naturally gather, either because they expected to be called together to discuss whether he should be received as a brother, or because they hoped to hear him for themselves. So something needed to be done to show that Paul did not teach Jews to abandon Moses. They thought this was important for three reasons.

First, it was important for Paul’s own reputation, so that a good man would not carry an unfair stain and a useful worker would not be hindered. Second, it was important for the people, so they would not keep their prejudice against him and miss the good of his ministry. Third, it was important for the leaders themselves, because since they knew it was their duty to support Paul, they did not want their silence to be used against them by the people they led.

They then offered Paul a fair chance to clear himself. They asked him to do what they suggested. They had four men, Jews who believed in Christ and belonged to their own churches, who were under a vow, a Nazirite vow, a special vow of devotion for a set time. Their time was now over (Acts 21:23), and they were to bring the offerings required by the law when the hair of their separation was cut off, a male lamb for a burnt offering, a female lamb for a sin offering, and a ram for a peace offering, along with the other offerings connected to it (Numbers 6:13-20).

Many people used to do this together when their vows ended at about the same time, either to save time or to make the event more solemn. Paul had recently gone so far as to take on a Nazirite vow and to show its end by shaving his head at Cenchrea, according to the custom of those who lived far from the temple (Acts 18:18). So they asked him to go a little farther and join these four men in offering the Nazirite sacrifices. They wanted him to purify himself with them according to the law, and to share in the cost of the sacrifices for this solemn occasion. They believed this would silence false reports and prove that Paul was not the man his critics claimed. It would show that he did not teach Jews to forsake Moses, but that he himself, being a Jew by birth, lived in an orderly way and kept the law.

They also made it clear that this would not weaken the earlier decision in favor of Gentile believers, nor would it take away their freedom (Acts 21:25). As for the Gentiles who believed, they had already written and agreed that such things were not required of them. They did not want them bound to the ceremonial law, only to keep away from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual sin. But they were not to be tied to Jewish sacrifices, purifications, or other rites and ceremonies. They knew how strongly Paul cared about preserving the freedom of Gentile believers, so they made a point of agreeing to that.

Paul accepted their plan. Though he could not be persuaded not to go to Jerusalem, once he was there he was willing to do as they asked (Acts 21:26). So he took the men, as they advised, and the next day he purified himself with them. He entered the temple, as other devout Jews would do on such an errand, to let the priests know that the days of purification were being completed. He asked that a time be set for the offering to be made for each of them.

Some think Paul here contributed to the offerings of these Nazirite men, and that he may even have bound himself to the Nazirite regulations for a week, with fasting and prayer, before the offering was made. Others have questioned whether James and the elders did well to give this advice, and whether Paul did well to follow it.

Some have criticized Paul’s temporary compliance as giving too much support to Jewish attachment to the ceremonial law, and as discouraging those who firmly held the freedom Christ had given them. They ask whether it was right for James and the elders of Jerusalem to allow Jewish believers to keep this misunderstanding, and then to persuade Paul to support it with his example. They argue that it would have been better to ask Paul, who had such gifts from God, to teach the people their error and show them that they were free from the law through their union with Christ (Romans 7:4). To encourage the Jews in their error by his conduct, they say, seems more like human prudence than God’s grace.

Others think the advice was wise and good, and that Paul was justified in following it in the situation he faced. Paul’s own stated principle was that to the Jews he became like a Jew, so that he might win Jews (1 Corinthians 9:20). He had already circumcised Timothy to avoid offending the Jews. Though he did not constantly keep the ceremonial law, he was willing to use such occasions to do good and to show how far he could go in accommodating them.

Those who are weak in the faith should be patiently borne with, while those who work to undermine the faith must be resisted. It is true that Paul’s compliance turned out badly for him, because the very act that was meant to calm the Jews instead stirred them up and brought him trouble. But that does not prove the action itself was wrong. Paul could do what was right and still suffer for it. It may also be that God overruled both the advice and Paul’s compliance for a better purpose than anyone intended.

There is good reason to think that when the believing Jews, who had tried to win favor by their zeal for the law, saw how cruelly they treated Paul, who had tried to please them, they were driven farther from the ceremonial law than they would have been by the strongest arguments or the most moving speeches. They saw that it was useless to try to please people who would be satisfied with nothing except the destruction of Christianity.

Integrity and uprightness are far more likely to keep us safe than secret compromises. When we think how deeply this must have troubled James and the elders, because their advice had helped bring Paul into trouble, it warns us not to push people into doing anything against their own conscience or judgment.