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God’s Word for You

Acts 16:3-5 The circumcision of Timothy

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, September 19, 2020

3 Paul wanted Timothy to come along with him. He took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 While they went through the cities, they delivered the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for them to keep. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew in numbers day after day.

While Paul was traveling with Silas and now also with Timothy, Paul took Timothy, the son of a Greek father and a Jewish Christian mother, and he circumcised him.

After everything we have read in the last chapter about circumcision, and after all that Paul wrote about the subject in his letter to the Galatians, written not long before this event, why would Paul turn back to circumcision? Did Paul become convinced that the circumcision group was right after all? By no means. He did not circumcise Timothy so that Timothy could be righteous in God’s eyes. He circumcised Timothy so that this young man would not become a stumbling block to Jews before they had learned the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the well-phrased words of one commentator: “Timothy was circumcised because of Jewish unbelievers, not because of Jewish believers.”

For someone like Paul, and a spiritually mature believer like Timothy, this wasn’t a return to the law, but a carefully chosen path so as not to put up a barrier to the gospel. It is only with good and careful judgment that a Christian can take up a point in the law of Moses and say, “I will keep this, but not in order to be saved.” It would have been the same with some other point of law: abstaining from unclean food, keeping the sabbath on Saturday, or making a sacrifice. But it was circumcision. In a country with public baths and many opportunities for men to see one another naked, Timothy’s circumcision was not an absolutely private matter as it would be today. It was a matter of public record.

Later, Paul would also make a sacrifice in the temple even though such sacrifices were no longer commanded (Acts 21:26). Paul could do these things while at the same time preaching the exact opposite. This is because he was free of the law of Moses and truly understood his freedom. “To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews” (1 Corinthians 9:20). Paul could happily keep the law in order to win a Jew for Christ. But if a Jewish Christian might try to enslave him under the law, that was another matter.

The journey through Asia Minor went well for the men. They delivered the letter, they strengthened the congregations, and more and more converts were made as they traveled. Those numbers grew “according to the days,” that is, day after day more souls were won for Christ.

What a victory this incident with Timothy was for the Holy Spirit. The devil had planted a minefield of trouble for Paul and Silas by stirring up the Gentiles of Palestine—Antioch in the north and Jerusalem in the south—over the question of circumcision. It was a trap that had been set for a long time, and now the devil tried to spring the trap over here in Asia Minor. There were dangers on every side. Paul kept his attention focused strictly upon Jesus, and he avoided each of the pitfalls and dangers as they came. Due to the help of the Holy Spirit, the work of the gospel was doubled (with Barnabas working in Cyprus with Mark), and there were new pathways into the Jewish synagogues thanks to Paul’s understanding of Christian freedom and his willingness to circumcise his young friend even at a time like this.

May we always see the right way to turn and to serve our God. “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” (Proverbs 4:18). May the Lord guide us and teach us the way to serve him. Our best course is to run back to his word, Sunday by Sunday in worship and day by day at home, becoming better and more eager disciples, always there at Jesus’ feet.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

Pastor Tim Smith
About Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.

 

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