Acts 15:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By faith alone, he says, they received the same thing. This brings shame upon the Jews, or rather, it can also teach them that faith alone is needed, and not the works of the law and not circumcision.

In saying this, the apostles wish not only to justify the Gentiles, but also to teach the Jews to abandon the law. Yet they do not yet express this.

After much discussion, he says, between us and them. Therefore hearts must be examined everywhere. And that this is pleasing to God, see what he adds: after much discussion between us and them.

Having spoken of the testimony concerning them, he then utters the great truth proclaimed by Paul: neither circumcision nor uncircumcision (Gal. 5:6). Again, he says, to create in Himself (Eph. 2:15).

“Now therefore why do you tempt God by desiring to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples?” Where faith cleanses the sins that proceed from the heart, there is no difference among the faithful, whether they are Jews or Greeks. This cleansing has replaced circumcision. Instead of fleshly circumcision, spiritual circumcision is given, which by faith in Christ cleanses even secret sins.

Faith in God purifies the heart, and the pure heart sees God. Yet because faith itself is sometimes defined by people who deceive themselves as though mere belief were enough, some believers who live sinfully promise themselves even the vision of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Angry with them, and indignant with a certain spiritual love, the Apostle James says in his epistle: You believe that God is one (Jas. 2:19).

You applaud your faith. You think that many impious people hold that there are many gods, and you rejoice that you believe God is one. You do well; even the demons believe, and tremble (Jas. 2:19).

Will they too see God? The pure in heart shall see Him. But who will call unclean spirits pure in heart? And yet they believe and tremble.

At last the Apostle Peter came forward with his proposal, which he based on his own experience. You know, he said to those assembled, that long before this God chose me myself to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles for the first time.

And when God, who looks upon the heart, imparted to them His Holy Spirit just as to believers from the Jews, He thereby testified that the Gentiles no longer had any uncleanness in His eyes.

Having purified their hearts by faith in the Redeemer, they had become as pure as the believing Jews.

How, then, can one be so bold as to doubt the almighty power and goodness of God? How can one assert that God cannot admit the Gentiles to participation in the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven without the law?

At the general Church assembly that then opened, agreement was not reached for a long time. Unreasonable zealots of the law of Moses disputed much with the defenders of Christian freedom from the legal yoke.

At last the chief Apostle Peter rose and offered his judgment on the matter. First he reminded those assembled of the event known to them all: the conversion of the Gentiles to Christ in Caesarea, in the house of Cornelius.

At the same time, he disclosed to them the inward meaning of this event. He showed that in this whole event, which began the conversion of the Gentiles, it was not he, Peter, who acted, but God Himself.

God Himself chose him, Peter, from among the other apostles, so that he would be the first to bring the word of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

In this testimony concerning the Gentiles' capacity to enter the Kingdom of Christ, God made no distinction between us, Christians from the Jews, and them, Christians from the Gentiles.

He granted them the Holy Spirit as He did to us, and purified their hearts by faith. This means their whole inward spiritual life, so that nothing unclean or pagan remained in them after they received the Holy Spirit.

In the expression purifying by faith, there is a clear reference to the voice of God that came to Peter in the vision: What God has cleansed, do not call common (Acts 10:15).

God purified precisely the hearts of the Gentiles, and He purified them by faith, not by external circumcision. The Judaizers wished to introduce circumcision into Christianity as something necessary.

The testimony of God, manifested in the granting of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, is the essential foundation for deciding how to regard Christians from the Gentiles.

They received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the same way and to the same degree as other Christians. Therefore they are Christians like the others.

As for their calling, it is God's work. His knowledge of hearts is sufficient guarantee that this calling took place rightly.

The converts, lacking the sacred purifying means and methods of the Jews, were purified in heart through faith. This faith gives spiritual purification in Christ, in Baptism.