For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
As the church was forming, one of the hardest thing for the believers to accept was the “new people.” You can almost hear them “we’ve never done it that way before!” (this is not a new issue in churches). The Apostles agreed, for the sake of the gospel, agree with the common sense traditions of abstaining from idol sacrifices, don’t consume blood, and don’t eat something that was strangled. There’s nothing inherently “sinful” in these things, but that would be hard for devout Jews to swallow. So too, there may be things that your church has as tradition, we all do. For the sake of the gospel, be willing to go along… as long as it is for the gospel. If something hinders the Truth, that’s not acceptable… It is interesting, though, sexual immorality is listed. Obviously, this is sin, but a sin that is so easy to “bend” on while welcoming new people in… we can’t. To be part of the church is to commit to sexual purity. In what you see, what you do, and how you live, not as perfect, but being sanctified through repentance. If you can do this, “you do well”
