What are these "things" or "life-styles" the Gentiles were asked to abstain from in Acts 15:29?
The abstaining from blood and things that are strangled are very hard to understand. Does it mean to abstain from meat that has not been slaughtered according to the Law, or does it mean to abstain from murder, e.g. blood, and enmity of the government, e.g. hanging from a stake until suffocation/ strangling as it was common practice Deuteronomy 21:22-23?
Acts 15:29
NKJV - 29 That you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
Clarify
•
Share
•
Report
•
Asked December 23 2016
•
Anonymous
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Carla van Wezel
Can you please explain to me then what the required way is of slaughtering an animal in order to not eat the blood? All meat that I eat has a little bit of blood in it. Am I not permitted to eat meat like this?
Steve Friesen
Refraining from eating blood was one of the requirements of the Mosaic Law (Lev. 17:10-14). That law was satisfied in Christ.
It seems to me that when Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you,” (John 6:53), He was pointing back to this command, telling us that He was the fulfillment of this law.
There was no way to have the spiritual life that Adam and Eve lost in the Garden of Eden restored into human experience except through Jesus giving His blood to atone for our sins. I think the law that I refer back to in Leviticus 17 is symbolic of the blood of Christ. The reason they were to refrain from eating blood was because under the Old Covenant, there was no life provided. Only in Jesus are we offered new life - His own Spirit living within us.
1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.” The life is in the blood, and under the New Covenant that Jesus established through His blood, that life is now available to us.
Jesus also mentioned in John 6:55, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” I think in saying this, He means that the physical food and drink under the Old Covenant were a sign of a true spiritual fulfillment that would restore the spiritual life that Adam and Eve lost in Genesis.
Steve Friesen
My suggestion to you, Carla, is that you feel free to eat meat with a clear conscience, even if you see a little blood in it, celebrating the fact that Jesus has satisfied the requirements of the Law on your behalf, and that you now have life in Him instead of just a set of rules to try to measure up to. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Gal. 5:1