Acts 21:15-32
In going from Greece to Rome, the apostle had intended to go by Jerusalem (Acts 19:21). In spite of this tiresome detour, the Lord’s will was to be done (v. 14). The path which we ourselves choose is never simple; we can expect to meet all kinds of difficulties. Paul is invited by the elders at Jerusalem to "judaize", in order to reassure the Jewish believers and he thus finds himself involved in contradicting his own teaching. What a painful dilemma for him! Once again, we see how much the Christians at Jerusalem had remained attached to their Jewish religion. They were trying to put new wine into old bottles (Matthew 9:17). It is to these Israelites, "zealous of the law", that James, named in v. 18, speaks on "the law of liberty" and of "pure religion and undefiled" (James 1:27; James 2:12). This "pure religion" does not consist of bodily "purification" (v. 24), but of keeping "himself unspotted from the world", as well as visiting the afflicted.
Paul is here caught in a cleft stick. He visits the temple and submits himself to the worship rites so as to oblige his brethren. It was incidentally in vain because the Jews see it as a provocation on his part and try to kill him, raising a commotion throughout the whole city (v. 30).