But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
James — the brother of Jesus and a leading figure in the Jerusalem church — is speaking during the Jerusalem Council, a pivotal gathering of early church leaders around AD 49. The question on the table was urgent: did Gentile (non-Jewish) believers need to follow the Jewish law to be saved? After hearing reports of how God was working among non-Jewish people, James offers his recommendation — don't burden Gentile converts with the full Mosaic Law, but ask them to avoid four specific things associated with idol worship and behaviors that would fracture fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. His recommendation was adopted, making this one of the most consequential moments in early church history: the point at which it became clear this faith was genuinely for everyone.
God, you surprised everyone with how wide your welcome turned out to be. Give me the honesty and humility of James — to look at what you are actually doing and let it teach me, even when it challenges what I have always believed. Keep making my understanding of who belongs larger than it was yesterday. Amen.
James could have sided the other way. He had enormous credibility as a deeply observant Jewish believer — tradition says his knees were calloused from constant prayer, and he was known as James the Just. Nobody would have questioned him if he'd backed the more restrictive position. But he looked honestly at what God was actually doing among people who weren't like him, and he let that evidence move him. That takes a particular kind of courage — not the courage to hold your ground, but the courage to let new evidence shift the ground you're standing on. We tend to think of conviction as the refusal to change. But James models something rarer: the willingness to hold tradition loosely enough that the Spirit can still surprise you. Think about a belief you hold — about who belongs, who's in, what God requires — and ask yourself honestly: is this genuinely true, or is it simply what I've always known? James's words in this verse are few, but the posture behind them asks a great deal of anyone who claims to follow the same God.
James recommends four things for Gentile believers to avoid rather than the full Jewish law or nothing at all. Why do you think he drew the line there specifically?
James held strong Jewish convictions but advocated strongly for Gentile inclusion without requiring conformity. What do you think made it possible for him to hold both of those things at once?
Is it harder for you to change your mind when it means letting go of a tradition you value, or when it means accepting someone you didn't expect to belong? Why do you think that is?
This decision had direct practical implications for who could eat and worship together. What unspoken barriers exist in your church or community today that make it harder for certain kinds of people to truly belong?
Where in your own life might God be doing something new among people you didn't expect — and what would it honestly take for you to let that reshape what you believe?
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
1 Corinthians 8:4
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Revelation 2:20
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
1 Corinthians 5:1
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Acts 15:29
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Genesis 9:4
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
1 Thessalonians 4:3
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1 Timothy 4:4
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Revelation 2:14
but that we write to them that they are to abstain from anything that has been contaminated by [being offered to] idols and from sexual impurity and from [eating the meat of] what has been strangled and from [the consumption of] blood.
AMP
but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
ESV
but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.
NASB
Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
NIV
but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
NKJV
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.
NLT
We'll write them a letter and tell them, 'Be careful to not get involved in activities connected with idols, to guard the morality of sex and marriage, to not serve food offensive to Jewish Christians—blood, for instance.'
MSG