7. Then James spoke (15:21 ). James, the brother of the Lord, is very much a Jew. He speaks to the concern of the Jews who feel that the blessing of the Gentiles apart from Judaism, in some way shunts the Jew into the sidelines. He reminds them of the words of the prophet (Amos 9:11-12 ) which spoke of the conversion of the Gentile as being the fruit of and the glory of the Jew. "Look at it this way," he seems to say, "the harvest of Gentiles is your glory because it is through you God has brought them to salvation in Christ."
8. But James does recognize an element in the contention of the Pharisee which needs attended to so he recommends a letter. The letter will urge Christian Gentiles to avoid needlessly offending the Jews who live among them (15:19-21,29 ). He urges them to avoid certain things because "Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath" (15:21 ). How could an unbelieving but devout Jew be drawn to Jesus as the Messiah if Gentiles who claimed Jesus as Messiah needlessly offended their sensibilities? Wouldn't the non-Christian Jew be inclined to think: "If Jesus were really the Jewish Messiah he couldn't tolerate this loose behaviour and these pagan eating habits."? James insists that the Gentiles be allowed freedom from circumcision and what went with that but he also urges the Gentiles of Antioch and elsewhere not to use their freedom to keep Jews from faith in Christ.
9. The issues expressly mentioned are: Food which is part of a sacrifice to idols, sexual immorality, meat which has been strangled and not drained of blood and blood itself (15:20,29 ). Sexual immorality would never be acceptable but some Gentile culture thought little of it (see 1 Corinthians 6) but the other things would become an issue when sensitive Jews were involved. James makes it clear that his letter to the church at Antioch expressed the mind of the Holy Spirit (15:28 ). It is more an appeal than a demand, its very tone is one of concession and appeal. James was making it clear to the Gentiles that they believed and taught salvation by grace (15:11 ) but he also didn't want the Gentiles to use their liberty to destroy Jews! (Later, in Acts 21:17-26 , James and others will urge Paul to submit to Jewish customs so as to avoid offence to believing Jews. Paul was glad to do this.)