Acts 15:19

My sentence is. Literally, “I decide.” James’s words imply that he speaks with authority. However, what follows is not a decree, for when finally promulgated it rested upon the authority of the apostles and elders (see ch. 16:4).

Trouble. Gr. parenochled, “to worry,” “to harass,” “to trouble,” by putting obstacles in the way of another. This is the only place in the NT that this verb is used.

Are turned. Rather, “are turning.” The work of conversion was going on among the Gentiles at that very moment. This verb (Gr. epistrepho) appears repeatedly in Acts in reference to conversion (see on ch. 3:19). That the Gentiles really were turning to God and that God was accepting them, was evidenced by the report of Paul and Barnabas, and perhaps by the presence of Titus, a Gentile Christian (see Gal. 2:1; cf. Additional Notes at end of chapter, Note 1). This was the basic reason for the decision taken. Gentiles were being converted; God was accepting them. How then could the church refuse to accept them?

The church did not yet see clearly that the ceremonial laws pointing to Christ were fulfilled in Him, and that the ethnic symbols characterizing the Jews as Jews (such as circumcision) were likewise no longer meaningful. For decades Jewish Christians, in general, continued to identify themselves with the Temple rituals, and even Paul joined in them when he was at Jerusalem (Acts 20:16; 21:18—26; cf. ch. 18:19). But later it was revealed, especially to Paul, that there was a theological reason for not requiring the observance of the Mosaic rituals. Many of these were “shadows” pointing to Christ and His work; once His mission was finished, they were no longer meaningful (Col. 2:11-20; Heb. 9:1-12). Others were characteristic symbols of Judaism that ceased to be significant when all men might equally find salvation in Jesus Christ without having to become identified with the Jewish people (see Rom. 10:11, 12; Col. 3:10, 11). Paul saw clearly that the spirit of legalism encouraged by these rituals had become a barrier between Jew and Gentile that had no place among men who were one in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:13-16).