“Have you ever experienced peer pressure? I’m sure you have. But have you ever experienced “spiritual peer pressure”? It’s the worst kind. You can be totally right with God, but religious people can make you feel like you must do things that God never required you to do. The Apostle Paul faced something like that in today’s text. Paul wanted to reach his fellow Jews with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so badly that he was willing to do anything to get through to them. Some believe that Paul went too far to the point of compromise. I’ll let you be the judge. Just be aware that trying to appease people is like trying to fill a bottomless pit. Once you start trying, you will always end up going too far and doing things you never wanted to do.

Acts 21:21-24 (NLT) … the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs… “Here’s what we want you to do. We have four men here who have completed their vow. Go with them to the Temple and join them in the purification ceremony, paying for them to have their heads ritually shaved. Then everyone will know that the rumors are all false and that you yourself observe the Jewish laws.

The conceivable compromise was that Paul knew that obeying the Laws of Moses can never save anyone. Salvation comes only through faith in Christ! Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome…

“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;” Romans 3:20-22, NKJV.

Never be victim to legalism or spiritual peer pressure.

                  Pastor Mike