Acts 15:31
When the people read it, they rejoiced at its encouraging message.
BSB
ASV
And when they had read it, they rejoiced for the consolation.
KJV
Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.
Which when they had read,.... That is, when the brethren of the church at Antioch had read the letter delivered to them; for not Paul and Barnabas, or Judas and Silas, who were sent with it, read it, but the brethren to whom it was sent, as was proper.
They rejoiced for the consolation - They acquiesced in the decision of the apostles and elders, and rejoiced that they were not to be subjected to the burdensome rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion. This closes the account of the first Christian council. It was conducted throughout on Christian principles; in a mild, kind, conciliatory spirit, and is a model for all similar assemblages.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Galatians 5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
leads to
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Through
Philippians 3:3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
leads to
In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Through
Acts 15:1Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
leads to
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.
