Acts 21:23-25

Catholics have many traditions. It seems that they kept them in their Jewish based conversion to Christianity. 

Are traditions good or do they inhibit the message of the salvation in Christ Jesus? We will one day know. 

Until then we can both agree that Jesus  provides the only way to God.

Acts 21:23-25

 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.”

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. 

James affirms the decision of the Jerusalem Council. Paul’s actions are purely social, showing respect for Israelite customs. 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.

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.

Numbers 6:18 | Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.

Acts 15:19 | Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,

Acts 15:20 | but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.