7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
One of the principles of the Old Testament is at work in this passage of Scripture. Paul and Barnabas came back from their journey to report all that the Lord had done through them among the Gentiles. There were some in their group that insisted that these Gentiles (non-Jews) in essence become Jews in practice. Jesus would say they were trying to put new wine in old wineskins. What is interesting is that Paul and Barnabas don’t stand up to defend what happened. Instead, Peter, the leader of the Jewish branch of the Church, stands up to speak. His argument is that he was the first person God used to reach out to the Gentiles. He is the other witness to God moving among the Gentiles apart from the Jewish customs that ruled their collective pasts. The principle of multiple witnesses is at work, two or three to be precise. It is one thing for Paul and Barnabas to argue for a change in rules. They might have something to gain from the argument. (They might have the chance to get stoned again!) But Peter steps up and defends what God has done. He has nothing to gain. I try to always aware of the sources of information that I accept. The source is almost as important as the information itself. We see this in the political arena all the time. Each candidate tells only what they want us to hear. We often need to get additional information from other sources in order to get a fuller picture of the truth. We need multiple witnesses. A single witness is the foundation of scams. All those emails from Nigeria, telling you that some rich person has died and they just need someone to cash their check, are a single witness. Be wary of single witnesses. That is one of the advantages of the Scriptures. They contain many witnesses from every walk of life over thousands of years telling the same story about a loving God who wants to have a relationship with us. Listen to the multiple witnesses. Be wary of single witnesses.
The Arnold Journey 