Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

Acts 15:20
But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

Acts 21:25
As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Leviticus 17:14
For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

if ye.

2 Corinthians 11:9
And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

1 Timothy 5:22
Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Fare.

Acts 18:21
But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

Acts 23:30
And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell.

Luke 9:61
And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

from blood
The prohibition against consuming blood dates back to the Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:4) and is reiterated in the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 17:10-14). Blood was considered sacred as it represented life, and consuming it was seen as a violation of God's commands. This directive would have been particularly relevant in a context where pagan rituals often involved the consumption of blood.

from the meat of strangled animals
Strangled animals would still have blood in their bodies, making their meat unclean according to Jewish dietary laws. This prohibition aligns with the broader biblical theme of respecting life and the sanctity of blood. It also served to distinguish the early Christian community from surrounding pagan practices, which often disregarded such concerns.

and from sexual immorality
Sexual immorality, or "porneia" in Greek, encompasses a range of illicit sexual behaviors condemned in both the Old and New Testaments. In the context of the early church, this would include practices common in pagan worship, such as temple prostitution. The call to abstain from sexual immorality is a consistent biblical theme, emphasizing holiness and the sanctity of marriage (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).

You will do well to avoid these things
This phrase suggests that adherence to these guidelines would lead to spiritual well-being and community harmony. It reflects the pastoral concern of the Jerusalem Council for the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers, ensuring that Gentile converts would not offend Jewish sensibilities or violate God's commands.

Farewell
The closing of the letter is brief and formal, typical of ancient correspondence. It signifies the end of the council's decree and conveys a sense of peace and goodwill. The use of "farewell" underscores the council's desire for the recipients to receive the message with grace and to live in accordance with the outlined instructions.

“You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols” (Acts 15:29). The Jerusalem council recognized the literal danger of anything tied to pagan worship.

• Idolatrous meals were acts of devotion to false gods (1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Revelation 2:14).

• Eating such food could tempt believers back toward the very idols they had just renounced (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

• It also risked wounding the conscience of fellow Christians who associated that meat with demonic worship (1 Corinthians 8:7-13).

The command is therefore both protective and relational: honoring God alone while preserving unity with brothers and sisters who might stumble.

“From blood” (Acts 15:29) echoes God’s enduring prohibition given to Noah: “You must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4). That pre-Mosaic mandate was later repeated to Israel (Leviticus 17:10-14) and now confirmed for Gentile believers.

• Blood symbolizes life, a sacred gift from God (Leviticus 17:11).

• Treating life casually dulls reverence for the Creator who “gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25).

• Abstaining honors the cross, where Jesus shed His blood for our redemption (Hebrews 9:22).

“From the meat of strangled animals” (Acts 15:29). Strangulation leaves blood in the flesh, making this command a practical extension of the prior one.

• It prevents stealth disobedience—simply choosing a different method of slaughter would violate the spirit of “abstain from blood.”

• It safeguards table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers, who could now eat together without fear of ceremonial defilement (Acts 21:25).

• It reminds the church that obedience expresses love, even in routine choices like what ends up on the dinner plate (John 14:15).

“And from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29). Unlike the dietary instructions, this command is moral, rooted in God’s unchanging design for purity.

• God’s will is “your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

• Sexual sin uniquely violates the body, “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

• The early Gentile world normalized immorality within idol temples (Acts 15:20; Revelation 2:20). The church was called to live counter-culturally for Christ’s sake (Philippians 2:15).

“You will do well to avoid these things” (Acts 15:29) offers gracious encouragement, not mere suggestion.

• Obedience brings blessing (James 1:25).

• It fuels loving witness, showing Gentile converts that the gospel frees them to serve the living God, not their former idols (1 Peter 2:11-12).

• It safeguards corporate unity, a theme the Jerusalem council fought hard to preserve (Acts 15:1-21; Romans 14:19).

“Farewell” (Acts 15:29) closes the letter with warmth and authority.

• A concise goodbye reflects confidence that God’s grace will empower obedience (2 Corinthians 13:14).

• It models the simple, peace-filled communication believers should practice (Colossians 4:6).

• The final word underscores the settled nature of the council’s decision, giving Gentiles immediate clarity and comfort (Acts 15:31).

Acts 15:29 delivers four clear commands—abstain from idolatrous food, blood, strangled meat, and sexual immorality—then urges believers to embrace them for their own good. Each directive protects the purity of worship, the sanctity of life, and the unity of the church. By taking these words literally and living them out, Christians honor Christ, bless one another, and shine brightly in a world still entangled in idols.

Fare ye well.--The closing salutation was, like the opening, a Greek and not a Hebrew one. It meets us again in Acts 23:30. Both were naturally used in a letter addressed to Greeks, and intended to be read by them and by Hellenistic Jews. It does not occur, however, in any of the Epistles of the New Testament.

It is natural to ask, at the close of the great encyclical letter, in what relation it really stood to the life of the Apostolic Church. As a concordat between the contending parties it was framed, as has been said, with a sagacity that may well be looked on as inspired. But obviously it was not, and from the nature of the case could not be, more than that. The time had not come for proclaiming to the Church of Jerusalem the full width of St. Paul's teaching (Galatians 2:2), and accordingly, though something may be read between the lines, the decree seems to treat the precepts of Noah as perpetually binding, places moral and positive obligations on the same footing, and leaves the ground on which they are "necessary" an open question. St. Paul, who had accepted it as a satisfactory settlement of the matter in debate, never refers to it, even when he is discussing the chief point with which the decree dealt (1 Corinthians 8-10). In his narrative of what passed on this occasion (Galatians 2:1-10) there is no mention of it. The private conference with the three great "pillars" of the Church was for him more than the decree of the synod, and he felt himself able to discuss the whole question again on different grounds, and with a more distinct reference to spiritual and ethical principles. It was wrong to eat things sacrificed to idols, not because the act of so eating in itself brought defilement, but because it might involve a participation in the sin of idolatry in the consciousness of the eater, or wound the conscience of the weaker brother who saw him eat. It was natural that those who lacked his largeness of view should become slaves to the letter of the rules long after the grounds on which they rested had ceased to exist, and so we find that the prohibition of blood was re-enforced in the so-called Apostolic Canons (c. 62), and in the fourth century by the Council of Gangra (c. 2), and in the seventh by that at Constantinople, known as in Trullo (c. 67), and continues to be the binding rule of the Greek Church still. In Africa and in Europe, however, truer views prevailed (August, cont. Faust. xxxii. 13), and not even the most devout believer in the inspiration of the Apostles, or in the authority of primitive antiquity. would venture to urge that the two last precepts of the four here enjoined were in any degree binding. Hooker (Eccl. Pol. iv., xi., ? 5) rightly refers to this decree as a crucial instance proving that commands might be divine and yet given only for a season, binding as long as the conditions to which they applied continued, but no longer. It would almost seem, indeed, as if St. Paul felt that the terms of the decree had the effect of placing the sin of impurity on the same level with that of eating things sacrificed to idols, and things strangled, and blood, and so tended to keep men from seeing it in its true hatefulness. Those who claimed a right, which in the abstract St. Paul could not deny, to eat of things strangled or offered to idols, thought themselves free to fall back into the old license of the heathen world, and he needed far stronger motives than the canons of the council to restrain them (1Corinthians 5:9-10; 1Corinthians 6:15-20, and found those motives in the truths that they had been bought with a price, that the will of God was their sanctification, and that their bodies were His temple. . . .