Swallow No Camels

September 7, 2026 – Make up your mind, Paul! — Acts #56. Acts. 15:36-40

To review, in Acts 15 the church leaders in Jerusalem met to answer the question: Do these Gentiles who want to follow Jesus need to be circumcised? What they are really discussing is:  Should gentile followers of Messiah Yeshua be required to become Jews? It was the act of circumcision for males that marked a person as abandoning their gentile identity and instead taking on a new Jewish identity.  And the answer they reached was, “No, Gentiles, like Jews, are saved by grace, not by any action of their own.

After that, Paul and Barnabas have a sharp disagreement about John Mark that they refused to resolve.  God did not author this disagreement, but as we have discussed, God uses all things, even our sin, to work for good.  From this disagreement, God produced two missionary journeys instead of one.

 Barnabas and John Mark return to Cyprus.  That is where Paul’s first journey with Barnabas began.  The Bible gives no details about Barnabas’s second trip there.  Early Church history says Barnabas was martyred in Salamis, Cyprus, likely sometime after 56-57 AD.¹

Paul and Silas head north by land to Cilicia, then return to Galatia, visiting the community of Jesus followers they started about 2-3 years earlier in the towns of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.

You may wonder how these followers had done over the past several years.  Can you imagine traveling to a place in, say, Africa, that had never heard of Jesus?  You stay there for a month or so, teaching them about Jesus, and then you leave.  But you leave no preacher in charge and no copy of the New Testament for them to study. They are just on their own.  How do you think they will be doing after several years?  

Well, this isn’t a fair comparison, because the communities of Jesus’ followers that Paul and Barnabas started already knew God and understood the idea of a messiah.  They met in synagogues that, for their whole lives, had prayed that God would send the Messiah, so when Paul and Barnabas explained that Jesus is that Messiah, they weren’t confused about what to do. 

They were doing what they had always done.  They were worshiping the same God they had always worshiped.  They were reading the same scriptures that they had always read.  They continued to read what we call the Old Testament, as they always had.  There were no other scriptures.  And Paul, who would become the writer of about 1/3 of our New Testament, told them that these scriptures they had were sufficient.  He later tells Timothy that these scriptures (our older Testament) were:

2 Timothy 3:15   Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 

Paul says the Old Testament reveals the truth about salvation through Jesus.   So I am sure these communities in Galatia were searching their Scriptures for references to the Messiah so they could better understand Jesus.   Paul tells them that the Scripture they already have is sufficient.  Paul continues in his letter to Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:16-17    All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

In other words, they had all the Scripture they needed to understand salvation through Jesus, to teach and correct each other’s errors, and to equip them for whatever God wanted them to do. 

Knowing how Paul felt about the Scriptures (our Older Testament) it is a shame that so many people feel the first 2/3 of the Bible is non-essential.  So much of what we know about God comes from part one of the Bible.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am very grateful that we have part two, the Newer Testament.  It gives us much more information about Jesus, how to follow Jesus, and the life to come.  All of Scripture is essential.  It is all the word of God, and we should study it all. 

So Paul and Barnabas didn’t leave these people in Galatia without guidance.  They had the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit.  They had all they needed.  So when Paul returns 2-3 years later, he finds a thriving community of Jesus followers.  

Jews and Gentiles both worship God together, celebrating their Messiah, Jesus.  The Jews are still Jews.  They didn’t check their Jewishness at the door.  They still follow the same laws they did before.  Now they don’t have to do animal sacrifices anymore, and Jesus has solved the problem of ritual purity.  But otherwise, they are still just as Jewish, following their Jewish Messiah.  

And the Gentiles are still Gentiles.  They didn’t have to become Jewish to follow the Jewish Messiah.  And in case you missed it, that was the whole discussion about circumcision.  Circumcision was the final step in becoming a practicing Jew.  You accepted God and agreed to follow the Jewish laws and then (if you were male) you were circumcised.  So when the council reached its decision in Acts 15, it said you don’t have to become Jewish (that is, be circumcised) to follow Jesus. 

And they worship together as they are one in Christ Jesus.  They both come to God the same way: by God’s grace and faith in Jesus. This is what Peter says in Acts 15:

Acts 15:11  But we believe that we [Jews] will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they [Gentiles] will.

So Paul and Silas travel through Cilicia and then to Galatia and the towns of Derbe and Lystra.  You will recall that Lystra was the town where Paul was stoned to the point that they thought he was dead.  They dragged him out of the city and left him there.  But he wasn’t dead, and he got up and went right back into the city.  And that brings us to our scripture today, where Paul is entering Lystra again:

Acts 16:1-5   Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium well spoke of him. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

In Lystra, Paul and Silas meet Timothy.  This is the Timothy that Paul addresses in two books of the New Testament.  And all the followers of Jesus in Lystra speak highly of Timothy.  He is well respected in the fellowship.  So Paul decides to take Timothy on the journey with them. But first he has Timothy circumcised.

Wait a minute!   Stop!  Did we not just spend a month talking about how they had this huge meeting of all the leaders of the Jesus movement in Jerusalem for the sole purpose of determining if Gentiles needed to be circumcised?  And didn’t we learn that the answer was “No, they did not need to be circumcised”? No, they do not have to become Jewish. Silas is with Paul on this journey because he is an official representative of the Jerusalem council, there to tell people this is not necessary.  Look at verse 4:

Acts 16:4  As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

Silas is there to go around telling everyone that it is official: circumcision is not necessary for salvation.  So why is Paul circumcising Timothy?  I can hear Paul now:

Hello everyone, this is my friend Silas.  He is here as a representative of the leaders of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, and he is here to report that the council has officially decided that circumcision is not necessary for salvation.  Now I’ll be right back; I have to go with Timothy to be circumcised.

This is the same Paul who said this in Galatians:

Galatians 2:3   But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

We learn in Galatians that Titus accompanied Paul and Barnabas on the journey to the Acts 15 council.   Paul says no one forced Titus to be circumcised.  So, let me understand: Paul didn’t circumcise Titus, but did Timothy.  Is Paul being inconsistent?  And does circumcision matter or not?   What is the difference between Titus and Timothy?

The difference is that Titus has a Gentile father and mother, so he is a Gentile.  Timothy has a Gentile father and a Jewish mother.  Wait, is this allowed?  Mixed marriages were against Jewish law in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and would have been scandalous in Jerusalem. In Galatia, it was more commonplace.  Mixing with Gentiles was much more accepted there.  

And it is important to see the difference between Timothy and Titus if we are to understand the Newer Testament.  So let’s spend a minute on this. 

First, Timothy has a Gentile father and a Jewish mother.  So is Timothy considered Jewish or Gentile?  Jewish heritage is based on the mother; that is called matrilineal descent.   So if a son of the tribe of Judah married a daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, the child would be considered part of his mother’s tribe: a Benjaminite.

Just because in our time, in our part of the world, we see descent as coming from the father, don’t think the Jewish method is unusual.  That is the way it was in much of the world in Paul’ day, and still is in much of the world today.  In fact, before Europeans arrived in North America, pretty much our whole continent observed matrilineal descent—that is, almost all Native American tribes.  

So Timothy is Jewish, and Paul’s actions are consistent with Scripture and the council’s ruling in Acts 15.  Titus was a Gentile.  There was no need to circumcise him.  He did not need to become a Jew to accept Jesus.  Timothy was Jewish, but had not been circumcised at 8 days old per the wishes of his Gentile father.  

Timothy is circumcised in obedience to his Jewish heritage.  It has nothing to do with salvation.  He will not be ‘more saved’ by this procedure.  But it will help him better witness to the Jewish communities he will be going to.  Luke tells us Paul’s reason for this:

Acts 16:3   [Paul] took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Paul didn’t want the Jewish people in the synagogues they would be visititing to disqualify Timothy and refuse to listen to him because he wasn’t an “observant Jew”.  Paul could have decided not to have Timothy circumcised, and when people complained that Timothy was not obedient to God, he could have explained his reasoning and tried to convince them to listen to Timothy.  But Paul decided that it was better to avoid the conflict.

Would Paul have been right to refuse to circumcise Timothy?  Yes.  But as we said in the last few weeks, sometimes being right is not enough.   Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you are reading Facebook and one of your friends comments that they feel there is nothing wrong with smoking Marijuana.  You disagree, so you start typing your reply, explaining why you think they are wrong.  You say, “It is illegal, and it causes lots of problems.”  Now I would tell you that I agree with you; I think marijuana smoking is wrong for several reasons:  Yes, it is illegal, but more importantly, as a doctor, I can tell you the dangers of marijuana use are increasingly backed up by science every day. So if you send your scathing comment to your friend, is the comment right?

Yes, it is.  And it’s your right to post your comment.  You have the right to respond.  But is it the right thing to do?  Is it worth alienating a friend?  Is it worth losing that friendship?  Is it worth losing the opportunity to influence your friend over much more important matters like salvation?   Is this the hill you want your friendship to die on?  Paul would tell you that sometimes we give up our freedom to do things to retain the possibility of influencing someone for the gospel.

Let me give you another example.  Suppose I am invited to preach at a church out of town. I do a little reconnaissance and discover that everyone dresses up for services at this church.  All the men wear suits and ties every service.  So when I go, you can bet that I will be wearing a suit and tie.

Not because I think it’s required.  I personally don’t think God cares nearly as much about what we wear to church as we do. The gospel is the same whether you are wearing a suit or jeans and a T-shirt.  I think God cares much more about our hearts than our clothes.  And I don’t really like to wear suits.  But I would at this church because they expect it, and I wouldn’t want to do anything that might be a stumbling block for them.  I don’t want them thinking about my clothes while I am trying to teach them about Jesus.

But say I find out that this church has a by-law that says you can’t be a member unless you wear a suit and tie to all services.  According to them, saved people wear suits.   And say a young man comes down front during the invitation and wants to join the church, but he is not wearing a suit and tie.  I will do everything I can to help the church accept him.  I would likely come the next night without a suit and tie and talk about how all God requires to be saved is faith in Jesus.  There are no other requirements: nothing we do, nor wear, nor say.

This is the situation with Timothy and Titus.  Paul has Timothy circumcised even though he knows it does not matter for salvation, but because he doesn’t want Timothy’s perceived disobedience to be a stumbling block for others.  But Paul would never allow Titus to be circumcized because that would be saying that the council was wrong, that circumcision was required.  Paul later says this in his letter to the Jesus followers in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 9:20-23  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Paul is willing to bend on cultural issues to get along better with the people he is trying to share Jesus with.  This does not mean:  “I don’t really believe anything, so I’ll become whatever everybody else wants me to be.”  Paul had very strong convictions.  Rather, he understood that not every issue is equally important.

There were things Paul would never compromise:  The gospel of Jesus Christ,  salvation by grace, the resurrection, the lordship of Jesus, and the truth that Gentiles don’t have to become Jews to be saved.  But there were other things that he was willing to bend on:  Circumcision, Jewish cultural customs, personal freedoms, or his rights as an apostle.   Paul could say: “I will not compromise the gospel. But I will gladly inconvenience myself if doing so removes an unnecessary barrier between someone and the gospel.”  That’s the principle behind Paul’s decision about Timothy and Titus.   You can’t witness to someone about Jesus if they find you offensive.

For example, the Bible tells us again and again to praise the name of our God and lift up His name.  We are commanded to mention His name.  And you know I am convinced God’s name is Yehovah, so I mention it often.  But I refrain from mentioning His name when I am talking to my Jewish friends, because they feel that it is disrespectful, and if I used God’s personal name, they would not listen to anything else I said.

How else do we apply this principle of Paul’s – to be willing to compromise preferences but not compromise the Gospel?  Take, for example, church music.  You might imagine a church where the congregation prefers traditional hymns. For this congregation, those hymns speak so well to their souls.   But what if community dynamics change and the congregation’s composition begins to shift?  The church may need to alter its music to best reach people in the community with different tastes.    Paul’s principle would cause us to ask:  “Is this music preference important enough for us to create a barrier between someone and Jesus?”   The question isn’t, “What music do I like?”   The question is:  “What will help these people hear the gospel?”

We faced this issue in my previous hometown when we started working with a mission church in our community, sponsored by a large church where we were members.  And I ended up in charge of the music for the mission church.  Now, you know my preference is hymns, but our target group for this mission was people who had left the church because they felt the church didn’t care for them, people who felt hurt by the church, and people who had never attended a church.

Many were in recovery from drug or alcohol abuse, and most of our attendees were younger adults.  What I love about hymns- the familiarity, the memories they stir- did not reach this group.  So at the mission, we did a lot of the more contemporary Christian music, but we also did some popular songs from the 70s and 80s (Journey, Kansas, Billy Joel) with altered lyrics to fit a gospel message. It was music they could identify with so they could better hear the message about Jesus.  You should have heard 100 people belting out U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” or  Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” with redeemed lyrics. 

Let me give you another example from this mission church:  Several young couples from the host church began to get involved with the young adults who were joining the mission church.  They included them in social outings and made them feel welcome and involved.  That was great.  Until we found out some of the young men were inviting several of our mission members to their house to watch ball games with the group.  That wasn’t a problem, but they were serving beer, and both of these mission members were alcoholics, struggling with alcohol abuse. 

Now I don’t drink.  I have seen what alcoholism can do to individuals and families, and after two of my best friends were killed by a drunk driver in high school, I decided I would never drink.  But if you ask me to use the Scriptures to say someone should never drink, I can’t do it.  The Bible says a lot about being sober and not drinking to excess, but that’s it.  So we had to explain to our friends that while the Bible did not condemn their responsible drinking, it certainly did condemn them drinking in front of 2 men who were in a tremendous struggle with alcoholism.  

We have been talking about this issue of circumcision for Gentiles for 5 weeks.  But you have to understand that this is a major issue for these Jesus followers.  That word is used over 100 times in our Bible.  And Paul feels that it is critical for these people to understand that it is not necessary for salvation.   For there were people in Paul’s day who thought their relationship with God was secure, and their place in the world to come was set because they had been circumcised, because they were obedient Jews.

Paul had to refute the idea that salvation comes through obedience; instead, it comes only by grace through faith in Jesus.  And we have a similar problem.  Today, there are professing Christians who are prone to think they are right before God because they go to church, or because they were baptized.  Some believe that their children are guaranteed a place in heaven if they were baptized as an infant or if they are raised in a Christian home.   But baptism, just like circumcision, is only a sign.  Church attendance, or giving to the church, is a sign that someone is a Christian, but those things don’t make someone a Christian. There is only one path to God: personal acceptance of Jesus as Savior and Lord.

External conformity to God’s laws will never save anyone, because no one besides Jesus has ever been able to keep God’s laws without fail.   But we must also understand this: While there are no other requirements to come to Christ, people who accept Jesus as their Lord definitely act a certain way. It is less about requirements after you are saved than about wanting to please Jesus, who loves us and does so much for us.   Jesus said this:

John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And John defined love for God this way:

1 John 5:3    For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

We should not use our morality in such a way as to isolate ourselves from the very people God came to save.  We must never confuse our preferences with the gospel.  And finally, we should be willing to sacrifice our preferences for the gospel.  We are in the world but not to be of the world.  We are obedient to God, and our obedience may cause us to act differently than the world.  

Sometimes we may be so different we stick out like a sore thumb.  But if we ever give anyone the impression that we think we are better than them because of our behavior, then we have lost the gospel.   We are not better because of our behavior.  Our obedience does not save us.  The impression we should seek to give the world is that we’re not better; Jesus is better. 

1. When Paul was writing 1 Corinthians, Barnabas is mentioned as if he were still alive.  “Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?” (1 Corinthians 9:5-6 ESV)