Acts 15:28-29

"For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on your no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well."

In the beginning of this chapter Paul and Barnabas are debating the topic of Gentiles not being circumcised, saying that their hearts were cleansed by faith and there was no distinction between Gentile and Jew anymore under the new law. Then a letter was sent to Antioch and it contained this scripture. It makes me wonder about how complicated we make things in Christianity. Right here the 3 things they say to stay away from is first idols and things sacrificed to them. Second, they are to stay away from blood & strangled animals, things that would be harmful to them. Third, the Christians were told to abstain from sexual immorality. These things were all told to them to keep their body and soul in check which we also see in later scripture. They all refer to 3 specific things the mind, the body, and the soul.

I believe that as Christians we make verbal and non-verbal rules for ourselves that aren't necessarily explicit in the Bible. I believe that we make being a Christian way more complicated than necessary. One easy example is drinking, its thought of as a sin in and of itself when drunkenness is what is condemned in the Bible. Another example is sexual immorality because indulging in sexual immorality can lead to AIDs and STDs. Things themselves like sex and alcohol aren't bad, but when used incorrectly they are distorted from their original purpose. Maybe we are just called to be like Christ and all these standards we set for ourselves and keeping us from actually becoming Christ-like because we are so concerned with keeping the rules we set for ourselves and what other people think of us. In this scripture the do-nots are pretty simple and we seem to think that salvation couldn't be that easy. As if we had to work for our salvation and if we broke any of those rules we would be less of a Christian. Do you think that if we just focused on being like Christ that we would know how to make good decisions that come our way instead of restricting everything in our lives to try and make us, "holy"? Makes me wonder...