15:6 {3} And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
(3) The matter is first handled, both parts being heard, in the assembly of the apostles and elders, and after is communicated to the people.
15:6 The apostles and elders came together. A meeting of the apostles and the elders of Jerusalem was called. It was in the year A.D. 51, about twenty years after the ascension of Christ. One apostle had suffered martyrdom; eleven, including Matthias, remained, though some might have been in distant parts. James, the brother of the Lord (Ga 1:19), though not one of the Twelve, was a chief man now in the Jerusalem church, and is often spoken of by historians as its pastor, or bishop. Though his sentiment decided the question this day, he has been regarded as a leader of the Judaizing Christians. See Ga 2:12.
15:1-6 Some from Judea taught the Gentile converts at Antioch, that they could not be saved, unless they observed the whole ceremonial law as given by Moses; and thus they sought to destroy Christian liberty. There is a strange proneness in us to think that all do wrong who do not just as we do. Their doctrine was very discouraging. Wise and good men desire to avoid contests and disputes as far as they can; yet when false teachers oppose the main truths of the gospel, or bring in hurtful doctrines, we must not decline to oppose them.
