<p>15:1 <i>But some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers: Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses</i>- &ldquo;Custom&rdquo; is Gk. <em>ethos</em>. This is a major problem in missionary work: the existing believers tend to expect that converts will not only accept the Gospel but also the ethos and culture of their existing community. And this is where this ancient argument about circumcision has so much to teach modern missions.</p><p><em>You cannot be saved</em>- The very same Greek phrase is used by Paul when he calls out in urgency during the storm: &ldquo;Except these abide in the ship, <em>you</em> cannot be saved&rdquo; (Acts 27:31). Surely Luke&rsquo;s record is making a connection; the legalists taught that it was time to quit the rest of the community unless they got their way, for the sake of their eternal future; and Paul responds by teaching that our salvation depends upon us pulling together against the desperate situation we find ourselves in. It&rsquo;s as if the salvation of Christ&rsquo;s body depends upon it staying together. As time went on in the first century, the gap between the Jewish and Gentile elements, the right and the left wing, the legalists and the libertines, got ever wider. The tension got stronger. But nobody won. The Jewish element returned to the Law, and forgot all about the saving grace of Jesus. The Gentile element mixed even more with the world and its philosophies, and forgot the&nbsp;Jewish roots of the Christian faith. They ended up formulating blasphemous doctrines like the trinity, which nobody with any awareness of the Jewish foundation of the Father and Son could possibly have entertained. And so the faith was lost, until it was revived again in those groups who again interpreted Christianity in terms of &ldquo;the hope of Israel&rdquo;.</p>