Articles
On Going Debates - Acts 15
On Going Debates
The challenge of those who would bind upon Christians the keeping of the law and being circumcised had been met, discussed, debated, and answered authoritatively (Acts 15). The apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote and delivered a letter stating the answer to this question. End of debate. Well, not quite.
We see Paul dealing with this subject later in the book of Romans, and Ephesians, and Colossians. The problem is that we have ‘new’ people asking the question. Some are unaware of the answer given earlier. Some are unconvinced of the truth of the answer given. So, it gets taught, debated, and answered again. And again.
Such is the nature of faith and discipleship.
When I became a Christian, I knew practically nothing about all the religious questions that had been asked over the centuries. Each question was new to me. Other Christians often had to explain to me “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). As I began reading religious history I found that most of the wrong ideas were that I had come up with were actually just old ideas that were being recycled.
I have now been teaching long enough to see the conversion of the grandchildren of people who I converted. It is all new to them. They ask the same questions that I asked. They often come up with the same wrong answers that I came up with. They also need to be taught more accurately the way of God.
Sometimes, as teachers, we become weary of going over the same old ground. We need to remember it isn’t old ground to these new people. They begin their discipleship even as we did, not knowing much. They begin as babes in Christ and need to be taught to observe all things the Lord taught. New converts are just that, new converts. The job of elders and teachers is to equip them so that that they are no longer children (in their faith) but mature. Only as we teach them can they grow up in Christ and not be tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). If we fail to teach, we simply end up with a generation that knows not God.
Brother Robert Turner use to say: “God has no grandchildren.” We are each individually children of God. We think, believe, and obey God for ourselves. Each of us will answer for our own deeds and character. So will our children and grandchildren. While we can’t make them believe and we can’t believe for them, we can equip them to come to faith and understanding. Hugh DeLong
