According to 21:17, when Paul and his company came to Jerusalem, the brothers gladly welcomed them. Verse 18 says, “And on the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.” The word “us” in this verse indicates that Luke was present.
In 21:18 we see that Paul went in to James. James was the central figure relating to the problem in Jerusalem, for he was a leader among the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. When Paul and his co-workers went in to see James, all the elders were present. This indicates that James was the leading one among the elders.
After Paul greeted the elders, “he related one by one the things which God did among the Gentiles through his ministry” (v. 19). Paul wisely did not teach them, but instead presented the things God had done through his ministry. When they heard this, they glorified God (v. 20).
Although the elders in Jerusalem glorified God for what He had done among the Gentiles through Paul’s ministry, they nevertheless went on to say to him, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and all are zealous for the law.” The Greek word rendered “thousands” also means myriads, ten thousands. These myriads of the Jews who believed were all zealous for the law.
The word in 21:20 about thousands of believing Jews being zealous for the law indicates how the Jewish believers in Jerusalem still kept the law of Moses, still remained in the Old Testament dispensation, and still were strongly under the Judaic influence, mixing God’s New Testament economy with the out-of-date economy of the Old Testament.
James addressed his Epistle to “the twelve tribes in the dispersion” (James 1:1), indicating that it was written to Christian Jews. However, to call these believers in Christ “the twelve tribes,” as God’s chosen people in His Old Testament economy, may indicate the lack of a clear view concerning the distinction between Christians and Jews, between God’s New Testament economy and the Old Testament dispensation. It may also indicate that James did not realize that God in the New Testament had delivered and separated the Jewish believers in Christ from the Jewish nation, which was then considered by God as a “crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). In His New Testament economy God no longer regards the Jewish believers as Jews for Judaism but as Christians for the church. Therefore, the Jewish believers, as the church of God, should be as distinct and separate from the Jews as from the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32). Nevertheless, James, as a pillar of the church (Gal. 2:9), in his Epistle to the Christian brothers, still called them “the twelve tribes.” This was contrary to God’s New Testament economy.
In his Epistle James also uses the word “synagogue” (James 2:2). The use of this word by James may indicate that the Jewish believers considered their assembly and assembling place as one of the synagogues among the Jews. James’ use of this word in his Epistle may indicate that the Jewish Christians regarded themselves as still a part of the Jewish nation, as the chosen people of God according to the Old Testament, and that they lacked a clear vision concerning the distinction between God’s chosen people of the Old Testament and the believers in Christ of the New Testament.
James 2:8-11 indicates that the Jewish believers at James’ time were still practicing the keeping of the Old Testament law. These verses correspond to the word in Acts 21:20 spoken to Paul by James and the elders in Jerusalem concerning the zeal of the thousands among the Jews who believed for the law. James, the elders in Jerusalem, and many thousands of Jewish believers still remained in a mixture of the Christian faith and the Mosaic law. They even advised Paul to practice such a semi-Judaic mixture (21:20-26). They were not aware that the dispensation of law was altogether over and that the dispensation of grace should be fully honored, and that any disregard of the distinction between these two dispensations would be contrary to God’s economical plan for the building up of the church as the expression of Christ.
In chapter twenty-one of Acts we see that James and the elders in Jerusalem had formed a mixture of God’s New Testament economy with the Old Testament dispensation. Actually James and the elders were even promoting this mixture. Of course, they did not neglect faith in Christ, but they were still zealous for the Old Testament. As a result, there was a religious mixture in Jerusalem. We all need to have a clear understanding of this.