For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay upon you no greater burden

Acts 15:1-35 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

The Council at Jerusalem

15 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. ³ Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. ⁴ When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. ⁵ But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

⁶ The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. ⁷ After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; ⁹ and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹ But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

¹² All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

James’s Judgment

¹³ After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. ¹⁴ Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. ¹⁵ With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written,

¹⁹ Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, ²⁰ but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. ²¹ For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²² Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, ²³ and they sent this letter by them,

³⁰ So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. ³¹ When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

In today's text we see a tendency that exists in the religious hearts of men. It is something that we can see evidence of back to the days when the Israelites lived under the law and it is something that still exists at times in the church today. It is man's tendency to add to God's commandments, creating more, or more restrictive rules and requirements than those God has set forth, as if men should have higher standards than God. 

In reality this tendency to add to the word and commandments of God has it's root all the way back in the Garden of Eden.    In Genesis 2:15-17 it says:   ¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”     In Genesis 3:1-3    it says:   Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

God did not say that they could not touch the fruit from that tree. He said they could not eat from it or they would die. God's rules and His commandments are not ment to be restrictive, they are not meant to keep us from enjoying a full and satisfying life. God's commandments are for our good, to protect us from things that might harm us physically or spiritually. In much the same way that providing a fenced in yard and playground for your child and not allowing them to play in the street is not intended to be restrictive, but rather it is for their protection, God provides every good thing we need and only keeps us from the things that cause us harm.

When we, like Eve, allow the devil to suggest to us that God is keeping things from us and we add to those restrictions we make way for the lies of the devil to cause us to question God. Again this tendency was evident in the religious traditions of the Jewish people. There were 613 Levitical laws or commandments laid out to the nation of Israel. Yet as if that were not enough the religious leaders added more requirements and traditions. In Luke 11:37-52   we see Jesus response to their hypocrisy.

³⁷ Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. ³⁸ When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. ³⁹ But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

⁴⁵ One of the lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” ⁴⁶ But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷ Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, ⁵⁰ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ ⁵² Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

The commandments of God are not meant for our harm but for our good. The requirements of men based on the lies of the devil are a hindrance to the kingdom of heaven. In John 8:44 Jesus says:

 the devil.... He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.    Jesus also says in John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus wants us to live and have abundant life. It is not His desire to restrict us from things that are good. We can focus on trying to maintain the 613 Levitical laws. We can focus on the Ten Commandments. We can add to those all of the additional traditions and requirements that religion tries to put on us, or we can walk in the abundant life Jesus came to give us.

Jesus sums up the requirements and commandments for us in Matthew 22:34-40.

 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. ³⁵ One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” 

If we will simply love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, then we will know the truth and freedom that the psalmist declares in Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

If we will then in response to the love of God also love our neighbor as our self, there will be no other requirement necessary. We will in these two commandments satisfy all that God requires. We will live in the abundance He desires for us.