Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 21-22.

I find it interesting that when Paul arrived in Jerusalem he gave a detailed report of his ministry among the Gentiles to James and the elders of the Church.  I realized the Paul did the same thing every time he went to Jerusalem.  Peter did something similar after visiting Cornelius’ house.  In this case, Paul further accepted their plan to reassure Jewish Christians that he was not teaching Jews to abandon the Law of Moses when they accepted Christ.  As I read this I get the impression that Paul accepted the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem as having authority over the entire Church; he appears to have held himself accountable to them.  One could interpret this as lending credence to the Catholic Church’s claim that the Pope has authority over the Church in a line which reaches back to Peter, except for one thing, James the brother of Jesus led these councils to whom Paul, and earlier, Peter, reported.  So, to whatever degree the Apostolic Church had an individual who was THE leader of the Church, that leader was James the brother of Christ, not Peter.

I am not sure what exactly this means for us, but it does show us that even Paul acknowledged a need to be answerable to other Believers about what he believed and taught.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.