When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. -- Acts 15:2 (KJV)
Stoning, prison, and the sword had not slowed the church. An argument between believers came closer. Men arrive in Antioch from Judaea and begin teaching the new Gentile converts that without circumcision after the manner of Moses, they cannot be saved. Luke calls what followed "no small dissension and disputation." Paul and Barnabas contest the teaching in the open, at length, in front of the congregation. The question under all that heat deserved the heat: what saves a person?
Conviction Took the Road South
Paul does not soften his position to calm anyone down. He argues, and Scripture never scolds him for arguing. Then the church appoints him, with Barnabas and others, to carry the question to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Hold those two moves together. A man sure he was right agreed to lay the matter before men who could weigh it, and to wait for their answer. His conviction and his submission traveled in the same body, down the same road.
Great Joy on the Way to a Dispute
Luke adds a detail that is easy to read past. Passing through Phenice and Samaria on the way, Paul and Barnabas keep "declaring the conversion of the Gentiles," and they cause "great joy unto all the brethren." Headed to the hardest meeting of their lives, they testify, and churches rejoice. The disagreement rode along with the mission and never got to drive.
Somewhere you hold a position you know is right. It may even be right. Has anyone above you been allowed to weigh it, or has that argument only ever run in rooms where you win?
