Acts 21:23-25

Jewish Christian believers, according to Paul, are to keep the traditions given to them by the Father. Gentile believers on the other hand are exempted from the myriad of laws that govern Gods’ chosen people. Paul lived according to Jewish customs. He was sent to the Gentile Christians because it was to small a thing to have Jesus die for only the Jews. 

God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for all of mankind.

To whom much is given…much is expected.

The Christian leaders were not asking Gentiles to live like Jews; neither did they want to compel Jews to live like Gentiles. The spiritual unity of the body of believers is realized in its diversity, not in its conformity. From our diverse backgrounds and cultures we honor the same Lord. NKJ Bible.

A Nazirite vow was connected with becoming pure or holy before Yahweh for a set period of time. James may be suggesting that Paul join in the Nazirite vow himself—which he may have already voluntarily done at one point—or that Paul undergo a different kind of purification rite. By doing this, Paul will show that he is still sensitive to Jewish culture, which James believes will overturn their fellow Jews’ concerns about Paul. This action demonstrates that Paul is not encouraging Jews to abandon their traditions, cultural identity, or religious identity. Faithlife Bible.

Paul paid the expenses of the four men who had taken a vow, because the men were impoverished by the famine in Judea and did not have enough money to complete their vow by offering a sacrifice in the temple. But there might have been another reason as well. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that when Herod Agrippa I began his reign over Judea in a.d. 41, he paid for a considerable number of Nazirite vows to show his respect for the Mosaic Law. For the sake of showing his Jewish brethren that he had not forsaken the laws of Moses, Paul did what they asked. Reputation was an issue for the apostle, as it is for all believers. NKJ Bible.

Acts 21:23–25 (NKJV)

²³ Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. ²⁴ Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. ²⁵ But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”