God's Sabbath

C HAPTER 33

Dispute Resolution

A careful prayer-filled reading of Acts chapter 15, together with The Acts of the Apostles chapter 38, can help to deepen the understanding of this chapter.

Traditional Thinking T hose who were assigned leading tasks and therefore posi tions in the infant Christian church had not been totally de livered from the way of life in their previous religious environ ment. When they left Judaism for the Christian religion, they still had much of their old thinking within them and naturally sought to continue this system in their new faith. They honest ly believed it to be both their right and their responsibility to ex ercise dominion over their fellow workers by giving them person al, specific orders on how they should act in certain situations. Because of their position thinking, they overlooked the fact that Christ had given instruction that such a hierarchy should not ex ist among brethren in the true Christian Church. He had said: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gen tiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become

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