Gospel Strategy and the Scandal of the Knife Text: Acts 16:1-5
Introduction: The Difference Between a Foundation and a Stumbling Block
In the modern evangelical world, we have a peculiar allergy to common sense. We have managed to cultivate a piety that is often doctrinally zealous and practically foolish. We have men who would die for the truth of the gospel, as they should, but who would not inconvenience themselves for the hearing of it. They treat their personal preferences, their cultural habits, and their individual liberties as though they were the eleventh and twelfth commandments. They have confused the foundation of the house with the welcome mat out front, and in their zeal to defend the former, they set the latter on fire.
The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, was a man of immense theological principle and immense practical wisdom. He was a master strategist, a spiritual warrior who knew not only what hill to die on, but also what hill to bypass for the sake of the mission. He understood the critical difference between compromising the gospel and removing an unnecessary obstacle to the gospel. The former is treason. The latter is love.
This passage in Acts 16 is a master class in this distinction. It is one of those places in Scripture that functions like a high-contrast dye, revealing the hidden assumptions of the reader. To the legalist, Paul's action here is baffling. To the libertine, it is scandalous. But to the man whose conscience is captive to the Word and whose heart is aflame with missionary zeal, it is a brilliant display of Christian freedom. Paul, fresh from the Jerusalem Council where he fought to the bone against the Judaizers who demanded circumcision for salvation, promptly finds a young protege and has him circumcised. If this does not make you stop and think, you are not reading carefully. This is not a contradiction. It is the very picture of a man who is free in Christ, and therefore free to become a servant to all, that he might by all means save some.
The Text
Now Paul also arrived at Derbe and at Lystra. And behold, a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brothers who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to keep. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were abounding in number daily.
(Acts 16:1-5 LSB)
A Second Generation Disciple (v. 1-2)
We begin with Paul's pastoral follow-up and the discovery of a future churchman.
"Now Paul also arrived at Derbe and at Lystra. And behold, a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brothers who were in Lystra and Iconium." (Acts 16:1-2)
Paul is on his second missionary journey, but he is not just chasing the horizon. He is returning to the churches he planted, watering what he had sown. This is the unglamorous, essential work of ministry. And in Lystra, he finds fruit. He finds Timothy. Notice that Timothy is already a "disciple." He is the product of a faithful home. We learn in Second Timothy that he was the recipient of a sincere faith passed down from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Here is a powerful testimony to the covenant, to the ordinary means of grace within a family. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. This places Timothy squarely in the middle of the central tension of the apostolic church.
He was a living, breathing embodiment of the Jew-Gentile question. And because his father was a Greek, and likely not a proselyte to Judaism, Timothy had not been circumcised. This was a known fact in the community. This detail is not incidental; it is the setup for the entire drama.
Furthermore, Timothy had a good reputation. He was "well spoken of by the brothers." This is a non-negotiable for leadership. A man's character must be tested and proven in the context of his local church. Leaders are not self-appointed visionaries who drop out of the sky. They are men who have grown up among the saints, served faithfully, and earned the respect of those who know them best. The local church is God's proving ground. Before Paul saw Timothy's potential, the brothers in Lystra and Iconium saw his character.
A Scandalous Strategy (v. 3)
Here we come to the heart of the matter, an action that seems to fly in the face of everything Paul stood for.
"Paul wanted this man to go with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek." (Acts 16:3)
Paul sees this young man's potential and calls him to join the apostolic team. But before they can go, there is a practical matter to attend to. Paul circumcises him. Why on earth would he do this? Had he not just returned from the Jerusalem Council, where he and Barnabas had "no small dissension and debate" with those who insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation? Did he not write to the Galatians that "if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you"? (Gal. 5:2). Is Paul a hypocrite? Is he caving to the very pressure he condemned?
Not at all. The key to the whole affair is in the phrase "because of the Jews who were in those parts." Paul's motive was not theological, but missiological. The Jerusalem Council had settled the theological question: circumcision has nothing to do with a man's justification before God. That was the hill to die on. But this was a different issue. This was a matter of missionary strategy.
Paul's primary strategy for evangelism was to go "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." He would enter a new city and go straight to the synagogue. Now, imagine him walking into a synagogue with Timothy, a man everyone knew had a Jewish mother but who was uncircumcised. The meeting would be over before it began. They would not have gotten to the sermon about Jesus, the Messiah. The entire conversation would have been derailed by what they saw as Timothy's flagrant apostasy. His uncircumcised state would have been a cultural and religious stumbling block of epic proportions, preventing the gospel from even getting a hearing.
So Paul, in his freedom, removed the stumbling block. Because circumcision meant nothing for salvation, he was free to use it for the advancement of salvation. He was not submitting to the Judaizers' doctrine, which was a doctrine of demons. He was accommodating the Jews' cultural sensitivities for the sake of winning them to Christ. He became a Jew to the Jews to win the Jews. This was not a compromise of principle; it was an application of it. The principle is love, and love seeks to remove every unnecessary offense so that the necessary offense of the cross can be clearly seen.
Doctrinal Integrity (v. 4)
Lest we misunderstand Paul's actions, Luke immediately provides the clarifying context. Paul's strategic concession did not occur in a doctrinal vacuum.
"Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to keep." (Acts 16:4)
At the very same time that Paul is circumcising Timothy for missional reasons, he is delivering the official apostolic decree that circumcision is not necessary for salvation. He is putting the guardrails up. He is saying, in effect, "What I just did with Timothy has nothing to do with his salvation. Here is the official paper to prove it. We did that for the sake of the mission. But this decree is about your justification. Do not confuse the two."
This is a beautiful picture of a minister who is both pastorally sensitive and doctrinally rigorous. He does not play one against the other. He knows that true love and true doctrine are not at odds. He submits to the authority of the church, represented by the Jerusalem Council. He is not a maverick. He is a team player, delivering the settled doctrine of the church, while at the same time using his apostolic wisdom to apply that doctrine in the messy realities of ministry on the ground. He is modeling for us how to be firm on the non-negotiables of the faith while being flexible on the negotiables of culture.
The Blessed Result (v. 5)
And what is the fruit of this blend of doctrinal fidelity and missional wisdom? The text tells us plainly.
"So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were abounding in number daily." (Acts 16:5)
The results were twofold, and they are the results every faithful church should long for. First, there was qualitative growth: the churches "were being strengthened in the faith." Sound doctrine, clearly taught and wisely applied, builds up the saints. It gives them backbone. It deepens their roots. It protects them from error and equips them for service.
Second, there was quantitative growth: they "were abounding in number daily." The church was growing. The gospel was advancing. People were being saved. This is what happens when the church is clear on its message and wise in its methods. When we hold fast to the gospel without compromise, and when we lovingly remove every unnecessary cultural barrier that keeps people from hearing that gospel, God blesses it. The church grows deep and it grows wide.
This is the divine pattern. Strength in the faith leads to an abundance in numbers. We live in an age that wants to reverse this. Many churches seek to grow in number by weakening the faith. They water down the message, remove the offense of the cross, and turn the worship service into a therapy session or a rock concert. And they might get a crowd, but they are not building a church. They are building a monument to their own foolishness. Paul shows us the true path: be unshakeable in your doctrine, and be unbelievably shrewd in your love. The result will be churches that are both strong and growing, to the glory of God.