Acts 15:22 Everyone agreed: apostles, leaders, all the people. They picked Judas (nicknamed Barsabbas) and Silas—they both carried considerable weight in the church—and sent them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas with this letter (The Message Bible)
For one brief, shining moment, everyone agreed. They agreed that the non-Jewish people who came to believe in Jesus did not need to be circumcised (a big relief for first century adults!) but that they did need to respect their Jewish brothers and sisters by following some customs regarding sex and food that were important to traditional Jews back then. They wrote a letter to this effect but a letter wasn’t enough. They felt they needed to send people to verify and maybe expand upon the words of the letter. Written words are great. We have books and newspapers and webpages galore. We have the Bible to tell the story of God. But don’t we need to see it all come off the page into someone’s life? Don’t we need another human being to show us what the words look like in action? I think we do. Maybe you have such a person for you. Maybe you could be such a person for someone else.
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 