Circumcision Introduction The ordinance of circumcision could not save man but was to be the distinguishing sign of the Jewish nation from the other nations. God has not commanded circumcision of the flesh for Christians. The First Church Council in Jerusalem that is recorded in Acts 15 deemed that a person does not get saved through the practice of circumcision but through faith alone in Christ, thus the Gentiles were not required to be circumcised. Paul consented to circumcision in the case of Timothy “because of the Jews” (Acts 16:3). Paul had Timothy circumcised after he asked him to become his co- worker (Acts 16:3). According to the text Paul did this not out of deference to Timothy’s mother but on account of local unregenerate Jews who knew Timothy had not been circumcised. Timothy’s thoughts about the matter are not mentioned but evidently he willingly complied with Paul’s request. Paul’s refusal to have Titus, a Gentile by birth, circumcised (Gal. 2:1-5) is not inconsistent with his decision to have Timothy, a Jew by birth, circumcised; both decisions accord with his theology and missionary strategy. Paul considered circumcision per se as nothing, and the same was true of uncircumcision (Gal. 5:6; 6:15). If someone insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation, Paul fought against this as false doctrine and refused to permit the uncircumcised person to be circumcised. But in Timothy’s case circumcision was simply a matter of expediency; and since Paul himself was prepared to become all things to all people so as to win some (1 Cor. 9:19-23), he did not hesitate to ask the same of Timothy. Paul would not risk impeding the gospel’s progress among the Jews by having an uncircumcised Jewish-Christian as his associate. Had he obstinately done so, he would have alienated his audience immediately and forever. Therefore, Paul regarded Timothy’s circumcision not as a means of salvation but as a legal act to remove a serious obstacle to the presentation of the gospel to unregenerate Jews. In Galatians, Paul refutes the Judaizers and states that a man is saved by faith and not through circumcision. The Judaizers originated with the Pharisees and those who adhered to their teaching and were composed of both believing and unbelieving Jews who taught strict adherence to the 613 mandates found in the Mosaic Law as well as the oral traditions of the Rabbis, which are now, documented in the Mishna and the Talmud. Many of the Judaizers were believers since Acts 6:7, 15:5 and 21:20 state that many of the priests and Pharisees who were teachers of the Mosaic Law believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation but after salvation they still adhered to the Mosaic Law rather than the mystery doctrine for the church age that Paul was teaching. 2012 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 1