The teaching of Acts 15:20,21 must be understood in
context of the clear teaching of both the Lord Jesus and Paul that all types of
food are now clean (Mk. 7:19; Acts 10:15; 1 Tim. 4:14; 1 Cor. 8:8) and that
there’s nothing which can enter into a person and defile them. Defilement is an
internal matter (Mk. 7:15-23). If Paul thought that we mustn’t eat blood, then
surely he would’ve qualified his statements that all meat is clean and can be
eaten.
The commands about not eating meat offered to idols, blood, strangled
animals and fornication (Greek- “porneia”) are all related. “Porneia” refers
specifically to sexual acts committed as part of the idol worshipping; drinking
of blood and strangling animals as sacrifices were also part of the idol
worshipping ritual. The Gentile converts are being asked to have nothing to do
with idol temples and the rituals practiced there. I suggest that the command
not to drink blood was in the context of not participating in idol worship
rituals; I don’t think it means that a Christian must drain all blood out of any
meat.
Elsewhere, Paul says that it is quite OK to eat any kind of meat-
including meat that had been presented to an idol. But Paul says it’s wrong to
eat this meat if it encourages a weaker brother to therefore worship idols (1
Cor. 8:4-12). If we are to understand Acts 15:29 literally- that we can’t eat
blood nor meat that has been sacrificed to idols- then Paul would be
contradicting the agreement made in Acts 15:29. It may be that he is indeed
doing this- the Jewish Christians didn’t keep their part of the agreement, and
so it could be that Paul decided that the compromise agreement of Acts 15 had
therefore lost its meaning, and he no longer kept it. It had been a compromise
aimed at reconciling Jews and Gentiles; and it didn’t work, because it’s clear
from the later New Testament that the Jewish Christians drifted back to Judaism,
and the Gentile Christians drifted back to paganism; and the Gentile Christians
often persecuted the Jewish Christians and vice versa.
However, it may more
simply be the case that 1 Cor. 8 and Acts 15 are teaching the same thing. In 1
Cor. 8, Paul is saying that it is quite OK to eat food sacrificed to idols;
idols don’t exist, and all types of meat are now acceptable for a Christian to
eat. However, we should not eat this food if doing so may encourage a weak
brother to believe in idols. Acts 15 is similarly a compromise; the Gentile
believers were asked not to eat such meat because it could cause friction with
their Jewish brothers. And we should aim always to live at peace with our
brothers (Rom. 12:18).
Finally, such questions of meat and food are surely
matters of personal conscience. If others see this matter differently, that’s
fine. They are free to not eat certain types of food just as they wish- for Paul
says that all such things are matters of conscience: “Some people's faith allows
them to eat anything, but the person who is weak in the faith eats only
vegetables. The person who will eat anything is not to despise the one who
doesn't; while the one who eats only vegetables is not to pass judgment on the
one who will eat anything; for God has accepted that person. Who are you to
judge the servants of someone else? It is their own Master who will decide
whether they succeed or fail. And they will succeed, because the Lord is able to
make them succeed. Some people think that a certain day is more important than
other days, while others think that all days are the same. We each should firmly
make up our own minds” (Rom. 14:2-5).